The Daily Trust Foundation is training no fever than twenty journalists selected from different parts of North-East states in budget tracking and Investigation. The workshop is held in Gombe State, Nigeria.
The project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, aims to equip journalists with processes involved in budget preparation, budget cycle, sources of revenue and expenditure and tracking for accountability.
In a remark, the chairman of Daily Trust Foundation, Bilya Bala, gave a brief explanation of how the Daily Trust medium came into existence and the vision to contribute to the growth and development of Nigeria.
According to him, Daily Trust served the nation at a time when news reportage globally wasn’t favourable to Nigeria, dishing a wrong perspective of the black most populace nation on the planet.
The chairman was optimistic that the training on budget and Investigation would prepare the journalists with the knowledge of data mining and analysis to hold sub-nationals accountable and bring good Governance to the doorsteps of the masses.
” I am afraid that today, Journalists only listen to what the government says and never care to go beneath the issue, that is, investigating and tracking down government expenditure in both capital and Recurrent.
We want journalists to be aware of this part of their responsibility, and do it honestly by tracking down all the government expenditures and report back to the masses, bringing to limelight evidence of projects executed by government and deficit ”
Commending Daily Trust and MacArthur Foundations, Mijinyawa Tilde, Gombe State Commissioner of Information and Culture says the issue of budget tracking is a key component in good Governance.
The budget tracking and Investigation training will take place for three days.
