You need to understand the budget because it is very important to you as a citizen as it is a planning, economic, political and social document.

As an economic document, the Budget allocates scarce resources. As a planning tool, it assists in drawing future activities in advance of time (forecasting). As a political document, the Budget determines who gets how much of the
available but scarce resources, and by when.

And as a social document, it is able to distribute benefits and costs according to community needs

The reasons we must have a Budget are:

• it is required by law and provides financial control
• it allocates limited resources to provide services to the citizens
• it is a form of communication to citizens on the purpose and intent of Government
• it stimulates an analysis of the fundamental purposes of spending
• the entire planning and control processes of many Governments are built around budgets
• the process of developing it enables a county to consider its goals and objectives, and specific means of achieving them
• it impacts on all citizens’ welfare once the measures in it take effect
• the amount of money allocated for various projects reflects the priorities of the National and County Governments.

The Budget is, therefore, so important that it cannot be left to individual politicians or County Government officials or a few interest groups with privileged access.