STMA adopts CoST’s Formal Disclosure Mandate

Sekondi, Nov. 10, GNA – The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) has officially adopted CoST’s-Infrastructure Transparency Initiative- Formal Disclosure Mandate (FDM) to enhance participation, openness and accountability in the delivery of publicly-funded infrastructure projects.

The adoption of the mandate is in line with various provisions in the local governance, public procurement, public financial management and the right to information acts, enabling the disclosure of information related to projects and contracts being delivered by local government authorities such as STMA.

The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Abdul Mummin-Issah, in an interview with the GNA, stated that the adoption of the mandate complemented on-going open government initiatives that could assist in the improvement of Municipal service delivery and create an enabling environment for citizens to participate in local governance through access to information.

He also disclosed that through the Assembly’s partnership with CoST Sekondi-Takoradi, an online disclosure portal was launched to create an avenue for the release of infrastructure data into the public domain.

The MCE also revealed that CoST Sekondi-Takoradi was in the process of designing an Infrastructure Monitoring Tool to enable citizens and other stakeholders to conduct independent social audits on ongoing infrastructure projects.

He, therefore, appealed to the citizens to make good use of the online disclosure Portal to access projects and contracts information.

The CoST initiative is aligned to the principles and values of Open Government Partnership (OGP), which sought to enhance transparency and accountability in the delivery of public infrastructure by publishing project and contracts information and implementing mechanisms to ensure citizens access to Information.

Its overall objective is to get greater efficiency and effectiveness of the investment and public spending, building citizens’ confidence and trust in the government and generating a culture of transparency and accountability.

On his part, Mr Isaac Aidoo, the CoST Sekondi-Takoradi Manager, stated that the full roll-out of the CoST initiative in STMA required that the General Assembly assented to a Formal Disclosure Mandate (FDM) to provide the authority and the requirement to disclose project information into the public domain.

The adoption, the Manager said, would provide the basis for the STMA to design and implement a disclosure process for the proactive release of information into the public domain per the CoST Infrastructure Disclosure Standard (CoST IDS).

He said the Multi-Stakeholder Group and the Secretariat of CoST Sekondi-Takoradi would continue to offer capacity support to ensure the Assembly complied with the assented mandate.
GNA