Interior Ministry conducts training for 2018 budget preparation

AMMAN — The Interior Ministry, in cooperation with the General Budget Department, is holding three training workshops in Irbid, Amman and Aqaba to train all governorates’ fiscal departments to prepare their budgets for 2018, according to a ministry statement. 

The aim of these workshops is to train the concerned parties on the governorates’ budgets preparation manual for 2018, which was developed by the General Budget Department in cooperation with the USAID-Funded Fiscal Reform and Public Financial Management, according to the statement.

The Irbid course, held on Monday, covered the governorates of Irbid, Mafraq, Jerash and Ajloun. Amman’s workshop, to be held on Tuesday will include the governorates of the capital, Zarqa, Madaba and Balqa. The third workshop, to be held in Aqaba on Thursday will cover the governorates of Aqaba, Tafila, Maan and Karak.

The workshops include assisting the departments’ employees to prepare their draft budgets for 2018, as part of the fiscal decentralisation framework.

Fiscal decentralisation is an essential component of the overall decentralisation process, which aims at delegating authority and redistributing responsibilities and resources related to administration, development and service delivery at the local level between the central government, the governorates and elected local bodies, the statement added. 

In addition, decentralisation aims to enhance public participation in identifying and prioritising needs, participating in decision making, developing plans for implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and establishing mechanisms for transparency, accountability and equity. 

The aim of decentralisation is to achieve “the ultimate objective of developing remote governorates”, where poverty and unemployment rates are high, the statement concluded.