CSO faults 2016 budget on transparency, participation

A civil society group, Evidence for Action (E4A), has called on the federal government to make health budgets transparent to be able to revamp the sector.

The call came after a scorecard assessing the budget process for health found that the 2016 appropriation failed to meet criteria for transparency, participation, adequate resource allocation and budget release.

Speaking at the launch of the scorecard in Abuja on Tuesday, the lead director for the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said budgeting had to involve more stakeholders in the health sector to move forward.

“We must insist on more openness and credibility and not just asking for more funds,” he said.

The country director for E4A which runs the MamaYe project for better maternal and child health, Dr Tunde Segun, called on government to open up the budget process to participation, ensure that timely information is given to the public on websites and ensure that allocation is adequate and released on time.

The scorecard showed poor annual allocation to family planning, per capita health budget fell below the $86 recommendation, the entire budget for health did not meet the 15% of general spending requested of national governments and there was no allocation at all to implement the National Health Act.

The President of the Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), Professor Oladapo Ladipo, called the omission a grave mistake but said the calls circular, which traditionally kicks off the budgeting process every July, was a window to ensure that the next budget includes funds to implement the National Health Act.