The Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) has been launched in Ashaiman Municipality in Greater Accra Region, to improve citizen?s perception of urban management and increase their participation in local governance.
The SPEFA project is the third component of the Local Government Capacity Support Project, facilitated by the Centre for the Development of People with the involvement of Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, and Local Government Service Secretariat.
Mr Kojo Anane, Programme Officer of People?s Dialogue on Human Settlements, an NGO (People’s Dialogue) told participants at the forum that efforts to reduce poverty would remain a mirage ?unless deliberate efforts are made to strengthen accountability and transparency at the local levels?.
He said citizens ought to be interested in their local assemblies? operations and question officials on execution of projects, those yet to be done and the uncompleted ones, adding ?accountability does not depend on hearsay?.
Mr Anane said the nation?s constitution imposes a responsibility on citizens to demand accountability from office holders and at various levels of projects implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
He noted that the challenge facing citizens? to actively participate in local governance process is apathy, conflict of interest and local interest as against national interest.
He called on people to be optimistic, diplomatic and eschew the habit of hearsay that largely seek to spread false information.
Mr Ibrahim Baidoo, Municipal Chief Executive said the district assembly concept places huge responsibilities on every citizen to take part in policy formulation and execution.
He said citizens should begin to develop the culture of inviting assembly officials to their local community meetings.
?This will help the assembly officials to explain policies and programmes and how assembly revenue is applied to enhance living conditions,? he said.
People?s Dialogue, established in 2003, is a community-based NGO is part of the implementation agencies executing the project in 46 metropolitan and municipal assemblies across the country.
GNA
