Budgetary processes in Nigeria have been shrouded in mystery, lacking transparency and accountability. This to a large extent is attributed to lack of education and the absence of access to relevant information. These identified inhibitions informed the basis for the design of holistic anticorruption campaign using information and communications technology tools. The first in the series of activities in addressing corruption was the development of the anti-corruption Internet database (see www.antigraft.org). This website is designed to warehouse corruption related data, and it has over the past two years generated a lot of interest, necessitating its expansion in the scope.

In its second phase, the anticorruption project has included the development of the Budget Monitoring and Enlightenment toolkit (BMT) and the Numbers Game initiative (a.k.a corruption calculator) www.corruptioncalculator.org geared towards empowering various stakeholders to participate in budgetary process by helping them understand the opportunity cost of corruption.

One of the steps taken by the West African NGO Network (WANGONeT) www.wangonet.org towards the attainment of the BMT is through the use of focus group opinion sampling workshops. The first in the series was the meeting of the panel of experts which aimed at harnessing human and material resources necessary for the articulation of appropriate structure and content of the toolkit, and the second profiled the strategic framework and critique of the toolkit by CSOs. The specific objectives are:

• To create a toolkit that will enable participants to acquire more information in budgeting and budgetary process.
• To provide opportunity for the target audience to critique the draft of the BMT content towards fine toning the content and production of the final draft.

The workshop formerly commenced with the welcome remark by Mr. Lardner of the WestAfrican NGO Network (WANGONeT), starting with the project background. He said the project was conceived five years ago based on a chat with a representative of the Open Society Initiatives for West Africa (OSIWA), who was in Nigeria to set up OSIWA. Their discussions were based on corruption and its challenges to the nation. Mr. George Soros said that his major assignment on any country of interest was to undertake an analysis of such a country before arrival. Based on this, he has been able to identify corruption as a common denominator of most resource- rich countries in Africa.

Corruption he maintains is a major challenge to Nigeria’s quest for nationhood. The second challenge is the citizen’s inability to understand how this affects the nation at various levels. Mr. Lardner stated that for Nigeria to overcome corruption, she must be able to quantify it. He further stated that the notion of corruption is understood but that the answer to the strategy to overcome it has never been clear. Many governments have been said to be corrupt but no institutional memory of this exists. To this effect, WANGONeT came up with the idea to deploy the use of technological approach, which subsequently led to the anti –Corruption Internet database (ACID) project ands appendages. He further noted that the Budget Monitoring and Enlightenment Toolkit is an offshoot of the ACID project and a tool to fully understand budgetary processes and galvanize advocacy.

Mrs. H.A. Balogun a former Attorney General of Lagos State acting as Chairperson, in her opening remark took a panoramic view of the concept of corruption, by first clarifying the misconception that Nigerians have about the term, and emphasizing that democracy is not synonymous with abuse of liberty. She said corruption is indiscipline; unfortunately nobody wants to accept that he/she is corrupt. This state of denial is the reason for the failure of various anticorruption efforts aimed at making Nigeria corruption free.

She attributed this to lack of education and that the consequence has been a retardation of national development in several areas. She also stated that budgeting process has been shrouded in mystery and that the stakeholders at the implementation and monitoring stages lack the tools necessary to effectively carry out their assignments. She reiterated that everybody has the right to budget monitoring and wished that the local government representatives amongst the participants would begin to interrogate the system and be willing to open the process to other interested stakeholders, as this arm of government would be the tier to recon with when the time comes.

Hon. Kolawole Taiwo (Chairman; House Committee on Education, Lagos State House of Assembly) started with the definition of legislation and the legislative functions which includes law making, representation and oversight function. He pointed out that law making is the most important role of a legislative house. He then went on to outline the stages/readings involved in the making of bills - first, second and third readings (in increasing order of refinement). He noted that the major difference between the bill on appropriation and other bills is that the appropriation bill is not subjected to public hearing. The only opportunity here exists when the respective ministries and government agencies come to defend their budget with a view to justifying their requests.

He added that the legislative role is also extended to legislative monitoring of budget to ensure proper implementation. In Lagos State for instance, the budget committee performs mid-year evaluation of budget performance of the Ministries and Parastatals to check on adherence to budget. Through the oversight function, the legislative exercise checks on the executive arm of the government.

In his remark Mr. J.B. Olaoye, (Ag. Director: Min. of Economic Planning & Budget, Lagos State) said budgeting is necessary as human needs are insatiable and resources are scarce. He mentioned five stages in the budget cycle as well as the highlights of activities involved at the various budget stages. The stages include–

• Conception
• Preparation
• Approvals
• Implementation
• Monitoring and Control

Mr. Fola Arthur-Worrey (Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Min. of Justice) stated that every sector of government needs to be involved in budget advocacy as budgeting is a competitive process. He emphasized the need for NGOs to advocate and to establish relationships with the relevant authorities and committees: be it the house of assembly, the judiciary or executive etc for release of money into areas of interest. In countries with large population he retorted, interests could vary to a great extent as which areas attract the most funds- children, gender, infrastructure etc. He also stated the fact that the concept of budget has always been misconstrued to mean money released, when in actual fact a budget is an estimate/expectation.

Mr. Nosa Osazuwa; United Nations Information Center Officer commended WANGONeT for choosing to a critical area such as this to proffer solutions on. He noted that issues of corruption and poverty are a major concern to the United Nations. He said the exercise was relevant to the work of the UN in Nigeria as it would help to strengthen national capacity for the implementation of the millennium development goals, especially on poverty reduction in the country. He posited that development or underdevelopment were more about the expansion of the choices available to people in seeking to achieve or to do whatever they want to do, than in the number of sky scrappers and bridges a nation can boast of. He reiterated United Nations support and cooperation with civil society groups in efforts to promote issues and ideas on the UN development agenda.