The Development Through Media (DTM) team was on 19^th July 2016, at a meeting held at the Eastland Hotel from 9:00am-1:00pm. The meeting was organised by the National Taxpayers association(NTA).The forum brought together civil society (CSOs) ,faith-based organisations and the private sector within Nairobi county working in the area of budgeting.
 

The meeting aimed to strengthen and deepen public participation, oversight and monitoring of the budget process at the County level to promote transparency and accountability. This will involve monitoring the county budget process to ensure adherence to the laid down budget making procedures in the constitution as well as enabling legislation of the Public Finance Management act (PFM Act) and other laws and regulations.
 

NTA is a national, independent, non-partisan organization focused on promoting good governance in Kenya through citizen empowerment, enhancing public service delivery and partnership building.
 

Micheal Otieno from NTA was one of the presenters who highlighted key issues in   monitoring the budget process. For instance, it was mentioned that there is need to avail work plans, sector plans and County Development Implementation Plans to the County Government. Educating the public on the importance of understanding allocations and expenditures in the different sectors was another fundamental issue brought out. Finally he pointed out that there is need to get budget documents and break them down into concepts which the citizens could easily relate to and allow them to hold their leaders accountable. Especially in key sectors like roads, health and education that most citizens interacted with on a daily basis.
 

As a way forward it was emphasized that a mapping matrix for all organizations in the network be created so as to identify the special interests and areas that the organizations work in and ensure reflective engagement in the areas that the organizations work in.
 

DTM will continue to support NTA in its endeavour to promote good governance in Kenya through citizen empowerment, enhancing public service delivery and partnership building.
 

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