Sekondi October 27-GNA-A two-day workshop on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), the new budget system, ended at Sekondi on Friday.

It was organised by the Western Regional Budget Office and was attended by 30 district officials from the Shama-Ahanta East Metropolis and the Mpohor Wassa East and Ahanta West Districts.

The officials included district budget, education, health, finance, Town and Country Planning and agriculture officers.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr Samuel Larbi, the Regional Budget Officer, said the workshop was to build the capacity of the participants to enable them to contribute meaningful towards the preparation of composite budgets under the MTEF in their areas.

He asked the participants to focus on performance-based budgets when the implementation of district composite budgets takes off in about four years time.

Mr Larbi said this would enable district officers to determine whether funds are been used judiciously to achieve objectives. He said the introduction of district composite budgets is the result of the government's decentralization programme. Mr. Larbi said similar workshops have been organised for the Juabeso and Bia districts, Nzema East and Jomoro districts and Sefwi Wiawso and Bibiani districts. He said all districts in the region would benefit from such workshops.

He said in 2004, Dangme East, Dangme West and Akwapim North Districts were chosen as pilot districts for the preparation of composite budget.

In 2005, 25 more districts were selected for the preparation of the budget, including the Wassa West and Jomoro districts in the region and 50 districts would be selected for the project in 2007.