freedom1 Forum has begun three-day training on public finance management to the journalists working in different media at Godawari of the capital city on November 10, 2013. There are 17 journalists participating in the training.
The training program is organized as part of the project ‘Strengthening Accessibility and Transparency of National Budget for public in Nepal’ being implemented by freedom1 Forum in partnership with programme for Accountability in Nepal (PRAN/World Bank).
The objective of the training is to engage journalists for the reform of public financial management by enriching their understanding on the issues and to motivate them to write on wide range of PFM issues in a way their writing would demystify and reach out budget related information to public in an understandable format.
Giving welcome speech on the occasion, Executive Director Krishna Sapkota, said the budget was one of the biggest issues of public concern and media’s role to reach public with this issue was very significant.
General Secretary of the Society of Economic Journalists of Nepal, Pushpa Acharya, said the SEJON and PEFA were in collaboration for building capacity of journalists.
Similarly, public administration expert Dr Sri Krishna Shrestha said there should be a delicate balance between demand and supply side. Demand side, supply side, revenue and expenditure were the four pillars of fiscal transparency and accountability, he said, adding the role of journalists to make people familiar with the budget was very significant, he added.
Member Secretary of PEFA Secretariat, Baburam Subedi, said it was important to build a critical mass in the area of public finance management. Massive discourse was imperative to be clear on PFM, he said, adding that optimum utilization of public resources was the core thing of budget process. The manager handling the public fund management always needs to be aware, he stressed.
Former Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, Keshav Acharya, said the budget was for checking the misuse of public resources. According to him, budget could be related to personal life and managed accordingly. Mr Acharya said mere parliamentary discussion on the implementation of budget was not enough, role of judiciary was important there to monitor the implementation status. He suggested the Finance Ministry to conduct the hearing/discussion on budget implementation.
freedom1 Forum’s Acting Chairman Hari Binod Adhikari expressed his belief that the training would be beneficial to enhance quality reporting of journalists on PFM issues.
Similarly, Principal Social Accountability Practitioner of the Project, Anirudra Neupane, said the trained journalists are required to develop extended stories and investigative features on different dimensions of public financial management issues in close coordination with freedom1 Forum team.