Govt begins projects validation

The government has started the validation of data on its policies, programmes, interventions and projects executed between 2017 and 2023. 

The outcomes will be uploaded onto a website and a digital app for access and assessment by the public and relevant entities.

The two-day validation work, which is taking place at the Jubilee House, is featuring all ministers, chief directors, technical advisors and heads of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, among others, to put the data together for easy accountability.

The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who is coordinating the work, told the Daily Graphic that the government had a lot of data on the work that had been done in the last seven years and how it had been impacting the lives of Ghanaians.

“It is important to put the data accumulated over the years out there, and allow the citizens, development partners, civil society organisations (CSOs), academia and others to appreciate the kind of work that had been done in Ghana over the years,” he stressed.

The government’s delivery so far is being put together in a way that would allow the average Ghanaian to be able to track things going on through a performance tracker, the second edition.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah stated that the data would also provide a certain understanding of what and how the government had been able to deliver during the period, and to also account to the people.

“Ghanaians should expect sacrosanct data on the work that had been done by the ministries, departments, agencies, regions and districts, and how it is impacting the lives of the people,” he said.

It would also provide a data set that would allow Ghanaians, CSOs, media, academia, political actors and the international community to select periods and compare and analyse as to whether “we are improving in the human quality indicators in specific areas or we are deteriorating”.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the website and app would also be a repository where the public could go and get data in human quality indicators in Ghana, and the performance or delivery of the commitment that had been made across districts, regions and sectors, among others.

Process

Explaining the process, the Minister of Information said the various entities had already sent their data, and after evaluation, the data were revalidated by the Statistical Services and other entities, including the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).

“When they come, they are presented with the details of their achievements; they go through it to say this is wrong or right, and they back each activity with evidence such as project imagery, videos and other documents of the work done,” he explained.

He said to present the information to Ghanaians in a way that would easily be understood, they would be extracting a matrix out of it so that it would be clear to tell that, for instance, the National Health Insurance Scheme coverage had moved from a certain stage to another.

The performance tracker is a website that brings all of government’s achievements together and allows for the public to scrutinise government projects and policies.

The validated data would be launched on a website and an application in order to afford the public the opportunity to track government performance.

It could be tracked from ministerial, departments and agencies level; sector, thematic areas, regional level and districts, among others, in the form of pictures, videos and text.