DAILY GRAPHIC, Saturday February 25, 2012, Pg.12.'Lack of social accountability......at local level of governance'

Story: Mary Ankrah

A  SENIOR fellow of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Mr Francis Tsegah, has expressed concern about the lack of social accountability at the local level of governance in the country.

He said this was due to lack of effective system of information flow with regards to the operations of the district assemblies, especially in relation to resource availability, distribution and service delivery.

 Mr Tsegah also observed that the absence of a professional working relationship between local administrators, officials and assembly members had led to the present poor citizens’ participation in local governance.

“It is sad to note that despite the elaborate constitutional, legal and policy interventions, not sufficient attention has been paid to the challenges of participation and representation at the local level, especially issues of responsiveness and accountability”, he stated.

He made this statement at the inauguration and launching ceremony of a three-year social accountability project dubbed “promoting social accountability through citizens’ participation in local governance” in Accra recently.

The project, which is to be carried out in 17 districts across the country, was a grant secured by the CDD-Ghana under the European Union (EU) Non-State Actors and Local Authorities Development Actions in Ghana.

The grant, worth 482,265 euros, seeks to involve stakeholders including traditional authorities, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, youth groups, women organisations, people with disabilities, district and municipal chief executives, assembly members, unit committee members and the media among others.

The project seeks to encourage citizen participation in local governance through active engagement and also strengthening the credibility of local authorities to promote local government accountability.

In this direction, the CDD-Ghana had commissioned a 10-member committee which would initiate sensitisation programmes that would seek to build capacities and cultivate attitudes of local political leaders and citizens.

It is believed that the project would increase citizens’ understanding and participation in governance process in their communities.

Speaking at the ceremony, a delegation of the EU to Ghana, Mr Kurt Cornelis, said the EU was of the firm conviction that accountability of public officials and citizens’ empowerment were the bedrock of good governance and pre-requisites for effective democracy.

For this reason, the project and other similar ones was intended to contribute to governance and increase capacity for social accountability.

Mr Cornelis noted that for the implementation of the decentralisation policy plan, attention would be devoted to the setting up of a social accountability platform to be facilitated by the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS).

He said the platform was anticipated to “promote harmonisation and monitoring of the performance and service delivery at districts level by communities and civil society organisations”.

In addition, Mr Cornelis stated that with the EU’s support for civil society as a pillar of good governance and effective democracy, a contract would soon be signed with the ILGS to also facilitate a civil society platform for social accountability.

He advocated that civil societies in the country needed to be resourced and strengthened to play their expected roles in national development.

In promoting social accountability, he said “civil society organisations have a role in helping government to better understand citizen’s priorities and adopt collaboration approach towards meeting their priorities”.