National Budget And Citizen Participation

A budget is a plan for future income and expenditure that is used as guideline for spending, saving or investing.The budget cycle refers to and includes all the processes, procedures and activities by which government builds and prepares the national budget, gets it approved by the Cabinet and Parliament and also includes the implementation and auditing stages. Community members must be involved involved because citizens participation influences the setting of development priorities and budget allocations that are responsive to their needs, to ensure that their needs are incorporated into the planning process for government to allocate funds to them, government can only budget for those needs that they know. They can only know the needs of the community when the community participates in the budgeting process. The constitution of Zambia Article 205(d) guarantees public participation for all citizens. The planning and budgeting policy also guarantees the right of citizens to participate in the budget process. While the constitution provides for citizens participation in the budgeting process, government is yet to enact the planning and budgeting act that will stipulate the details on community participation