KARACHI, March 12: Sindh Minister for Local Government, Katchi Abadis and Spatial Development Muhammad Hussain Khan has said the budget of any government, whether federal, provincial or local, reflects the vision of development and performance of essential functions, remaining within the resource constraints of the government.

He said this while addressing the participants of the six-day workshop on Building Capacity in Budgeting for local bodies institutions, organised by Decentralization Support Programme (DSP) of the Finance Department in a local hotel.

He said that budget-making was one of the most important activities of any government, as it was not just a statement of income and expenditures as was commonly understood.

The minister local government said political leadership at all levels provided vision for economic and social development of the people living within their jurisdiction and budget provided means for translating this vision into reality.

He said that it was the duty of the government officials entrusted with the task of budget-making to match goals set by the political leadership with the available resources and to produce best output in terms of better service of the area and its people.

Mr Hussain said 700 officials and officers would be trained during 21 workshops scheduled for the next two months. These workshops would help the officers to further enhance their budget making abilities, he added.

The minister hoped that the DSP would cover all the important, theoretical and practical issues involved in the process of budget-making. These contributions would definitely help them improve budgeting at the district government and TMA levels.

Provincial Secretary for Finance Malik Israr Hussain and DSP Director Farasat Iqbal also spoke. — PPI