Lusaka:  Newly elected Economic Association of Zambia (EAZ) vice-president Isaac Ngoma has challenged civil society to take issues pertaining to the national budget process seriously if they are to hold government accountable.

Speaking at the trainer of trainers workshop on budget monitoring and expenditure tracking organized by the Civil Society for Poverty reduction (CSPR), Ngoma said that the civil society in Zambia was failing to challenge government on many wrongs because they do not know what government is mandated to provide for the people.

"The budget is the tool for unlocking development. Things we see and acknowledge from government is found in the budget, therefore the budget becomes a critical component in the development of the country," he stated

Ngoma observed that there was a tendency by civil society organisations to rush to the media to discuss issues based on non researched data to back their arguments.

"You need to understand and take stock of the budget trends, go to the markets, social clubs and break down the budget to give easy guidelines to the lay people in society. Localise the budget from the national realm to local levels so you can have mass based movements to back your arguments," he said adding that civil society organization were good at criticizing government but the question is how much they were doing themselves.

Ngoma, who is also an economics consultant said that civil society have a role to act as watchdogs of government in the provision of services, stressing that a watchdog was not going to bark if it was asleep. "Zambia has been looted, there is no joke about it. This is what happens to a country when it goes to sleep," he charged.

He said that there was no way the same sleeping watchdog could in turn stand on mountain and roof tops to ‘bark' without facts hence the need for civil society to be vigilant.

Ngoma further observed that there was need for well researched fact advocacy if the civil society are to exercise their role in the development of the nation.

"As civil society our role in budget process is critical but some civil society organizations in Zambia do not even take stock of how government is operating. We are now entering September and government was supposed to release a report in June to show how the budget has performed this year, yet the civil society does not even know that government is required to publish those reports," he noted.

"Government cannot ignore the mass based movement. It gets scared when numbers grow, they give in and you have won the battle."

He noted that there had also been too much focus on politics and squabbles in Zambia instead of much more important issues affecting the people and the nation.

"Politicians always want to sway Zambians' minds away from contentious issues with their squabbles. Zambians like doing this, where you find a person comparing the facial appearances of Mr Rupiah Banda and Mr Michael  Sata to see who is more handsome than the other," he observed.

"Analyzing facial features of Mr Banda and Mr Sata? That is not what will bring food on the tables. Instead of focusing on what government is supposed to provide for you, people waste time on analyzing facial appearances."

He noted that the media shapes the thoughts and lives of the society stressing that civil society must be compelled to work with the media.

The workshop corresponds with the launch of a booklet based on a brief policy and sectoral analysis of Zambia's fiscal policies and budget trends of between 2006 and 2010 compiled by CSPR through economic consultants three months ago.

In its findings, CSPR recommended the need for a budget fiscal management piece of legislation to provide the legal framework for initiation, development, approval and implementation of the national budget, and to change other important dates and aspects of the budget cycle among others.