Penplusbytes organises dialogue between residents, assembly

Penplusbytes, a civil society organisation that  advocates for peoples’ participation in governance, has organised a forum for residents of Korlekope, a farming community in the Ada East District Assembly (AEDA) near Kasseh to promote dialogue between the people and the assembly.

Among the issues discussed were education, sanitation, security and governance at the local level. The programme was on the theme, “grassroots open government using new digital tools”.

The programme is being piloted in AEDA in the Greater Accra Region and the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly in the Northern Region. 

The director of programmes at Penplusbytes,  Mr Jerry  Sam,  said the initiative was to allow citizens to contribute to issues of  governance at the local level via social media and text messages.

“The initiative will change the mindset of citizens in our communities, since they would actively be involved in the governance process,” he indicated.

According to him, “providing easy access to information on development plans will build the trust that the government is accountable to the needs and desires of citizens’’. 

Request from residents

The residents requested for farming inputs, the refurbishment of basic school structure and the construction of a borehole and public place of convenience.

They stated that the absence of a public place of convenience had compelled them to resort to open defecation which posed a health risk to them.

“We don’t have toilet, we go to toilet in the bush. We are scared of deadly faecal-oral diseases such as diarrhoea.  Therefore, we want the assembly to build a toilet facility for us,’’ Rita Korley a resident told the Daily Graphic.

For his part, an official from the assembly, Mr Amin Abdul-Latif, commended Penplusbytes for the initiative and assured the community of the assemblys’ preparedness to address their challenges.

He, however, implored the residents to pay their taxes promptly in order to boost the assembly’s finances to embark on more development projects in the area.