By Vincent Ujumadu
AWKA—ANAMBRA State government has assembled major stakeholders in the state, including traditional rulers, presidents-general of the various town unions, leaders of thought and women and youth leaders in Awka, the state capital, to make inputs into the 2011 budget.
According to the government, the essence is for the people to decide projects to be executed in their areas before the budget is presented to the state House of Assembly next month by Governor Peter Obi.

Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Professor Chinyere Okunna, said the decision by the state government to make the stakeholders part of the budget preparation was to avoid duplication of projects, which had been the bane of some previous budgets.

Though representatives of the various zones were initially selected, Vanguard observed that no fewer than 72 traditional rulers and about 150 presidents-general of town unions stormed the venue of the meeting, apparently, to ensure that the needs of their communities were properly articulated and made to form part of the decisions that would eventually form part of the 2011 budget.

At the meeting, they reeled out projects after projects which they expected government to implement in their areas, saying they never knew it was possible to involve ordinary people in the making of budgets.

According to Okunna, it is the first time the people are made to be part of  budget making in the state.  He added that in the past, people were sometimes given projects their communities did not require.

She dismissed the insinuation that it was late to ask people to make input in the budget since the year is coming to an end, adding that there is still enough time to accommodate the views of the stakeholders since what would be done is to marry their inputs with what civil servants had already prepared.

On the performance of the 2010 budget, Okunna said that it could be rated average, adding however that the last two months are usually the fastest period as many capital projects would be executed within the period.

She said that road construction performed best so far in this year’s budget, followed by the health sector which witnessed massive construction at the state University Teaching Hospital and equipping of the rehabilitated 15 General Hospitals in the state.

She said that other sectors that have done well in budget implementation so far are agriculture which witnessed the injection of adequate funds into the Omor Rice Mill said to be the largest in West Africa and the successful execution of projects in conjunction with international donor agencies.