‘Well-informed citizenry can engage duty bearers’
A lecturer at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), Mr Felix Agyei Amakye, has advised the citizenry to garner knowledge about the local governance system to enable them to hold public officials accountable.
A well-informed citizenry, he explained, was in a better position to engage with duty bearers meaningfully, hold them accountable and ensure transparency in the execution of development projects.
Civic engagement, he stated, was particularly useful to ensure that the limited resources of the government were properly allocated to prioritised projects which were relevant to the citizens.
Holding public officers accountable
Speaking at a forum for members of the Adentan Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) group held at Adentan last Thursday, Mr Amakye urged the participants to strive to acquaint themselves with the functions and workings of the Adentan Municipal Assembly (AdMA).
While calling on the citizenry to have a strong voice in local development, he said they must also endeavour to influence development and change at the national level.
To ensure social accountability, he said “we must all get involved, since good governance entails participation and transparency”.
Mr Amakye said the benefits of social accountability included improving the quality of governance at the local level, increasing the effectiveness of service delivery and increasing citizens’ participation.
Forum
The forum, which was on the theme: “Making accountability work”, was to build on shared knowledge and strengthen capacities on key SPEFA concepts to effectively engage AdMA and other local government institutions on key local development issues.
The participants included representatives of traders, youth groups, persons living with disabilities, landlord associations, residents associations, assembly members and women’s groups.
In a welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer of Intervention Forum (IF), Ms Nora Ollennu, whose organisation is the local capacity builder for the Adentan SPEFA group, called on the participants to communicate the knowledge gathered at the forum to their members to promote good governance.
She said the involvement of local citizenry in the assembly’s functions ensured that they were able to have a say in the way and manner limited resources were effectively allocated to address prioritised local development issues.
Concerns of residents
During an open forum, some of the participants complained that they were not informed about ongoing projects in their communities and had difficulty getting in touch with their assembly members.
Others spoke of the springing up of unauthorised facilities such as filling stations and noisy churches, as well as the lack of water and street lights in their communities.
In response to the complaints from the participants, Mr Amakye advised those with concerns to write to the AdMA stating their concerns and not to resort to open confrontations with their local authority representatives.
The Assistant Municipal Planning Officer of the AdMA, Mr Kofi Simper, said it was important for the citizenry to understand the various stages of participatory planning, budgeting and revenue management to ensure effective citizens’ participation.
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