Breaking the silence on corruption: Empowered residents demand accountability in Northern, Bono, Ahafo regions
When the construction of a three-classroom block stalled for a long time in Dalung, a farming community in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region, Mahama Safianu was left unsure of where to seek answers.
Like many residents in the community, he watched helplessly as the half-completed structure slowly gathered dust.
“We used to complain among ourselves, but we didn’t know who to talk to or how to follow up to ensure the completion of the project.
We felt abandoned,” he said.
Similarly, Issahaku Fauzia and her colleagues at the Centre for Community Empowerment and Youth Development, a not-for-profit organisation, struggled with frustrations when they noticed inconsistencies in the delivery of public projects, but did not know how to confront authorities to seek answers.
Fauzia told the Daily Graphic that “we used to think only journalists or politicians could demand answers on delivery of public projects; we didn’t know our voices mattered most.”
However, they gained a new sense of purpose and power after participating in a citizen engagement and anti-corruption training in 2024.
The training empowered them to utilise corruption reporting mechanisms to report corruption-related issues and also demand accountability and quality service delivery at the local level.
Experiences
Mr Safianu, whose eyes were opened as a result of the training, said, “Now, I know what corruption looks like, I have learned the steps to take when something is not right.”
Some of the participants in the Kumbungu training sessions with officials of GACC
He indicated that using knowledge gained from last year’s training, he succeeded in requesting information from the Kumbungu District Assembly about the number of people affected by the drought that hit the district in 2023.
That, he said, helped his community better understand the scale of the problem.
In the same vein, Fauzia said since then, her organisation had officially written to several government agencies, requesting information about ongoing projects in their district.
“Now, I can stand before a crowd and explain why it's important to demand accountability.
We are educating others, and we’re seeing people take interest in development projects,” she stated.
Intervention
The workshop was organised by Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), in partnership with the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), and with support from the European Union.
A section of participants in the workshop
Dubbed “Strengthening Accountability, Rule of Law, and Institutional Responsiveness in Ghana” (SARIS) project, the 36-month initiative, running from January 2024 to January 2027, seeks to empower citizens to demand accountability and combat corruption.
In 2024, about 240 participants from 24 selected districts in the Northern, Bono and Ahafo regions received training in various corruption reporting mechanisms, accountability, transparency and the significance of civic engagement in anti-corruption efforts.
Some of the beneficiary districts were Savelugu, Tatale-Sangule, Kumbungu and Yendi.
Second phase
This year, about 160 individuals from youth groups, women’s associations, community-based organisations, and civil society groups have been trained under the SARIS project across the beneficiary districts.
Some participants in the Kumbungu training
The training aims to deepen citizens’ understanding of Ghana’s Public Financial Management laws, the audit process, and empower them to monitor and advocate the implementation of audit recommendations at the local level.
Additionally, it will equip the participants to carry out public sensitisation on corruption in their communities and report incidents through official channels.
Financial management
At a training session at Kumbungu, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at GACC, Solomon Nyankah, said this year’s training focused on public financial management to empower citizens to monitor how public funds were spent, and to ensure fiscal discipline in their local institutions.
“Corruption happens at the grassroots just as much as at the top, we want citizens to feel equipped to ask questions and take action,” he said.
Assistant Programme Officer at GACC, Dorcas Affum Tenkorang, admonished the participants to put the knowledge acquired at the training to good use, to help promote transparency and accountability in their respective communities.
She said, “Many people don’t even know what’s going on in their communities. We need to be more vigilant and curious. That’s how we prevent our leaders from misusing resources meant for our development.”
Some of the participants who spoke to the Daily Graphic expressed their gratitude for the knowledge and tools provided, pledging their commitment to the fight against corruption in their respective communities.
Sharing her experience, a participant, Mohammed Asana, said she had learnt how to report corruption-related issues whenever she suspected corruption in a deal.
For Mr Safianu and Fauzia, the second phase of the training has strengthened their capacity to stand out and demand accountability and fight corruption, particularly financial malfeasances in their respective areas.
Bono, Ahafo
At a similar training workshop held in Sunyani, the Bono Regional capital on the same theme, a Programme Officer of GACC, Samuel Harrison-Cudjoe, said the project sought to contribute to strengthening public accountability, rule of law and responsiveness through the empowerment of civil society and media and promote reforms on preventive anti-corruption measures.
He said corruption had negative effects on every sector of the country's economy and urged the public not to be afraid of demanding accountability from their authorities.
Mr Harrison-Cudjoe urged citizens to be bold to report corrupt practices in their communities to reduce the menace.
He said the project had entered its second phase after they took the participants through the various forms of corruption reporting avenues last year.
He said the second training was to strengthen the capacity of citizens to understand specific anti-corruption laws, such as the Public Financial Management Act.
Mr Harrison-Cudjoe said the project was targeted at building citizens’ capacity to promote transparency, monitor public financial management, and fight corruption in their communities.
He said they focused on anti-corruption at the local level because the districts were the foundation of local governance.
"Empowering citizens at this level ensures real change by promoting transparency and accountability where it directly impacts communities," he said.
Mr Harrison-Cudjoe urged the public to reject, resist and report corrupt practices in their communities to reduce the menace.
Target
The project aimed to train 1,140 citizens, mainly civil society organisations (CSOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), women-based associations, youth groups, and persons living with disabilities (PWDs) across the project implementation areas.
Participants in the two-day anti-corruption training workshop in Sunyani
So far, 151 persons, including chiefs, have been trained in the four beneficiary municipalities and the district.
In the Sunyani Municipality, a total of 40 people have been trained; in Tain District, 39 have benefitted, Berekum Municipality, 39 and Tano South Municipality, 33.
The participants are expected to engage in community sensitisation, monitor the implementation of audit recommendations at Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), and educate their peers about corruption reporting mechanisms.
The workshop sought to reduce corruption, explore reporting avenues, and emphasise the importance of civic engagement in anti-corruption efforts.
National advocacy
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Global Media Foundation (GloMeF), Raphael Godlove Ahenu, said the workshop would strengthen grassroots action and inform national advocacy.
He said it would also help put pressure on authorities to reinforce the rule of law and accountability structures to reduce the increasing corrupt practices in society.
Mr Ahenu said it was expected to improve transparency and citizen access to procurement and audit data, through the operationalisation of an electronic tracking platform.
He said corruption reduced economic growth, increased poverty and inequality and distorted markets and unfair competition, and also reduced foreign investment and trade, while decreasing access to basic services.
Strong advocacy
The Assistant Communications Officer, GACC, Pamela Laourou, emphasised the need for the country to strongly advocate and collaborate to bring drastic change in society.
She explained that intensive advocacy would help attract the attention of policymakers to corruption issues to give them maximum attention.
That, according to Ms Laourou, would influence policymaking and implementation processes.
Some of the participants, who spoke to the Daily Graphic after the workshop, said the training had helped to deepen their understanding of corruption and its related issues.
They said the workshop had empowered them to detect and report corrupt practices in their communities to anti-corruption institutions for action.
The participants said through the training, they had been exposed to several consequences associated with corrupt practices and pledged to advocate transparency and lead anti-corruption awareness campaigns in their communities.
Writers’ emails: mohammed.fugu@graphic.com.gh & biiya.ali@graphic.com.gh
