Budget making process lacks transparency: NGO

CHITRA; Centre for Peace and Development Initiative (CPDI) has launched its annual report on state of budget transparency in the country which points out shortcomings in the process at the federal and provincial level.

Addressing a press conference here, a senior social organiser of Regional Community Development Programme (RCDP), the partner organisation of CPDI, imtiaz Hussain said stakeholders were neglected altogether during all stages of budget making and its implementation.

He said CPDI and RCDP always strived for transparency and participation of different cross sections of society in the budget making to enlist their needs and requirements.

He said that dismal performance of the country on open budget index in the recent years raised many questions on the state of budget transparency and citizen participation in it.

He said that 150 requests for information about various stages of budget making had been made to the federal ministries and provincial departments to test transparency by CPDI but only 10 replies were received.–Zahiruddin