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Opinions of Tuesday, 2 September 2014

Columnist: Sam, Jerry

Did you know you can shape Ghana’s 2015 budget?

Public Input into the 2015 Budget Statement and Economic Policy

This campaign is brought to you by www.myghanabudget.org, a joint project by www.penplusbytes.org and Financial Accountability and Transparency Africa (FAT Africa) with support from STAR-Ghana. Download mobile version of citizens' budget 2014 www.myghanabudget.org/mobile

Budget reading is the most visible and popular aspect in the budget cycle where the Minister of Finance presents the budget to law makers for legislation. A very important step after budget formulation is enactment where key stakeholders including civil society groups and citizens have a great potential of shaping the budget through provision of input.

Ghana is currently at the important stage of its 2015 budget cycle; The Ministry of Finance is soliciting inputs from recognised professional bodies, associations, civil society organisations and citizens, ideas and contributions that may be considered during the process of formulating the budget statement

Based on this call, citizens and key stakeholders can contribute to shaping Ghana’s 2015 national budget. The window for this call ends on 5th September 2014 and it is expected that the budget statement for 2015 will be presented to parliament in November for debate and passage in December 2014.

Interested persons can send contributions directly to The Director of Budget, ROOM 417, Ministry of Finance, Email: bdu@mofep.gov.gh or The Public Relations Office, Ministry of Finance, Box MB40, Accra, Fax numbers 0302-665132/663854. Email: pr@mofep.gov.gh. You can also send in your input via online form at http://forms.dev45.net/view.php?id=11177

www.myghanabudget.org is designed to facilitate public participation, provoke debate around the budget and help shape public policy. The project also seeks to promote civil society participation at all stages of the national budget preparation and implementation thereby strengthening Ghana’s democracy and accountability expected from Government.

About FAT-Africa is a Civil Society Organization and a Think Tank that advocates and promotes Good Financial Governance with the aim of creating an enabling climate to nurture a culture of efficient public sector and financial management principles in Africa.

Penplusbytes established in 2001 seeks to empower the media through the use of ICTs to advance the course of journalism in 3 areas: governance & accountability, new media & innovations and oil, gas & mining.

STAR-Ghana is a multi- donor pooled funding mechanism (Funded by DFID, DANIDA, EU and USAID) to increase the influence of civil society and Parliament in the governance of public goods and service delivery, with the ultimate goal of improving the accountability and responsiveness of Ghana’s government, traditional authorities and the private sector.