DUSHANBE, December 11, 2008, Asia-Plus — A roundtable meeting formally titled “Developing Mechanisms for Public Participatory Budgeting Process” has opened at the Mercury Hotel in Dushanbe today mooring.
The meeting, organized by the UNDP CO Tajikistan and the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) in the frames of the project, Promoting Transparency and Accountability, brought together the representatives from international organizations, Tajik local and central financial institutions, other ministries and agencies, as well as the representatives of private sectors and mass media to discuss issues related to providing transparent budgeting process and improving an access to and quality of information on local budgets..
Safarbek Soliev, program analyst on external relations, UNDP CO in Tajikistan, said that the main objective of the meeting is in acquainting the public with the strategies and functions of the state authorities on budgeting process and bringing transparency on the activities of the state authorities. Transparent budgeting provides an enhanced safety to society and the state from corruption practices through the raising awareness of public about the government agencies and legality of made decisions.
Public participation in budgetary process is an innovative financial practice that helps to enhance participation and improve accountability and transparency
in administration of financial matters. It is a mechanism to involve and empower people in decision-making and more equitable distribution of resources.
Public participatory is a mechanism of forming informational space, helps to identify the problems, needs and values important as for the society as well as for the state authorities, helps to elaborate new ideas, searches for new approaches of problem-solving, helps to estimate various alternative decisions, and expedites the decision-making process.
