June 10, 2013

“In this training, participants learned about citizen rights toward the budget, which the citizen is a contributor to local revenues through taxes and user charges, so they have the right to receive benefits from the government budget and have the right to find out where their money is being spent by the government.”

On 29-31 May 2013, PATTIRO has conducted Budget Advocacy Training for CSO Networks in Merauke regency at Akat Hotel. This training followed by all members of CSO networks (members of Jaringan JASINGAN), three SKPD representatives (SKPD working for education sector,  SKPD working for health  sector and SKPD Bina Marga  as well as public figures like Priest (Pendeta dan Tokoh Agama setempat). This three-day training was opened by SEKDA Merauke, and facilitated by two facilitators – Nandang Suherman and Sri Nilawati.

In this training, participants learned about citizen rights toward the budget, which the citizen is a contributor to local revenues through taxes and user charges, so they have the right to receive benefits from the government budget and have the right to find out where their money is being spent by the government

In addition, participants also learnt on how the planning and budgeting process undertaken by the government, with keynote speakers from from Bapeda Merauke. To be able to read the budget, the participants were trained on how to analyze and identify public services priority issue and see how the budget has been allocated for public services as well as analyzing government expenditure plans of the public service budget.

The participants has shown their enthusiasm and willingness to explore more on  how to analyze budget in other activities, and the results of the analysis will be followed up in budget advocacy work, especially in RAPBD 2014 moments. The training closed by the Head of Bapeda  Merauke Regency. He hoped CSO Network be able to work together with the government in the acceleration of good governance, especially in encouraging participation, transparency, and accountability in Merauke district (FM)