‘District assemblies must account to the people’
The Chief Executive Officer of Intervention Forum, a non-governmental organisation, Ms Nora Olenu, has stated that if accountability in the local government system is to work well, residents must have access to relevant and comprehensible information.
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She explained that it was the best way to ensure that public funds were spent wisely and it also served to enable locals to examine details.
Under the circumstances, she said, it was necessary to empower the public to hold public officials accountable insofar as disclosing information on the public purse was concerned. She said when that was done it would enable citizens to keep abreast of operations of local authorities.
Accountability mechanisms
Ms Olenu was speaking at a day’s training for a citizens’ group, the Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) at Adentan in Accra. Ms Olenu stated: “Practically, public institutions use only the ‘supply side’ of accountability to inform stakeholders on what they have been able to do successfully.”
She added that accountability mechanisms “that concentrate on the ‘supply side’ of governance have failed to deliver in terms of minimising corruption and improving access to qualitative public service for poor communities.”
She said training programmes were organised for members of SPEFA to empower them with requisite knowledge that would render them capable of scrutinising the activities of public offices and officials in order to “improve upon governance and achieve real development.”
The topics discussed at the training programme were on financial reporting, auditing and performance monitoring and evaluation, using the Adentan Municipal Assembly as case study.
Participants included representatives of residents associations, unit committees, youth groups, persons living with disabilities, civil society and trade associations.
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Some participants, in an open forum, held in the course of the programme expressed dissatisfaction over the non-involvement of the people in decision making at the district assembly level.
Monitoring projects
An Assistant Development Planning Officer of the Adentan Municipal Assembly, Mr Kofi Simpeh, said it was the duty of all stakeholders to periodically monitor and assess projects that were being implemented in their communities as well as policies that were being put in place to govern them.
He said the assembly had a monitoring and evaluation plan that tracked the progress of programmes and projects and this, he added, was reviewed on a quarterly basis.
Furthermore, Mr Simpeh said the Adentan Municipality inspected project works at regular intervals, following which information gathered were disseminated to all relevant stakeholders.
“Promoting a participatory, monitoring and evaluation mechanism where stakeholders are involved in tracking, collecting, recording and analysing information on the performance of an ongoing project promotes judicious use of resources,” he said.
Financial reporting
The Adentan Municipal Finance Officer, Mrs Magdalene Yaotey, said strong financial management in the public sector was essential in view of the increasing demand for accountability and transparency.
Such practices, she said, also facilitated the processes of accountability and increased citizens’ confidence in public officials.
In order to meet statutory requirements, Mrs Yaotey said municipal, metropolitan and district assemblies were to prepare and submit monthly financial reports and annual financial statement for onward transfer to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the Auditor General’s Department.
writer’s email: emelia.ennin@graphic.com.gh