Gov’t to Hold Technical Workshop on the Development of Citizen’s Budget Portal

Monrovia, Liberia - The Government of Liberia (GOL) through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning will on Friday, September 11, 2020, hold a one-day workshop leading to the development of a dedicated Citizen’s Budget Portal at the Golden Key Hotel in Paynesville.

The Ministry is utilizing the expertise of its staff and with technical support from the Budget Strengthening Initiative (BSI), they will focus on review and adoption of technical specifications, functionality, and web-architecture designs as well as graphics as part of critical deliverables under the GOL Fiscal Transparency Initiatives through the Open Budget Initiative (OBI).

The OBI is GOL’s openness mechanism for achieving its fiscal transparency goals. The OBI is designed for implementing budget outreach strategies annually for disseminating fiscal information to the public. Since the establishment of the OBI, a number of initiatives were designed and implemented, including the publication of Budget Calendar (Timetable), Pre Budget Statement, Executive Budget Proposal, Enacted Budget, Citizen’s Guide to the National Budget, Mid-Year Review, In-Year Report, Audit Reports, and End-of-Year Report through the print and electronic media outlets and on government websites.

Following legislative approval of the passage of the Budget Transfer Law in 2008, and subsequently, the enactment of the first-ever public finance management (PFM) the law in 2009, the Government of Liberia is fully committed to making publically available all of the eight key budget documentation as outlined above, policies and programs, including those relating to promoting transparency and accountability in the budget process and fiscal reports in a manner that is accessible with ease, free-of-cost, interactive with visuals and infographics, support by high-security features and sensitivity and data contents accessible in a machine-readable format.

These initiatives are consistent with the requirements of international best practices as Liberia has gained its membership and participation into the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the International Budget Partnership (IBP), Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Global Assessment, and most recently in 2019, the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT).