Tamale, July 27, GNA – Mr Mumuni Mohammed, Northern Regional Programme Manager of SEND GHANA has described as bureaucratic the attitude of decentralised institutions getting approval from national offices to speak on issues of national interest.
It also does not augur well for accountability, the Manager said, adding that, “officials of state institutions are beginning to run away from accountability with the excuse of not having approval from the national level.”
Mr Mohammed expressed worry over consistent absence of GETFund representatives at district engagement sessions to discuss specific issues raised about GETFund projects.
He was speaking at a national dialogue, organised by SEND GHANA in Tamale, dubbed: “National Dialogue on Findings of Citizen-led Monitoring of Infrastructure Delivery at the Local Level.”
The forum brought together representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Northern Development Authority among other stakeholders to deliberate on lapses identified in infrastructure delivery.
The event was a component of the Monitoring for Financial Savings (M4FS) project implemented by SEND GHANA with funding from Integrity Action.
The M4FS is a two-year project aimed at empowering citizens to monitor the delivery of infrastructure projects at the district level.
Mr Mohammed noted that government must take accountability by state entities to the citizenry seriously to check misappropriation of funds from recurring.
He stated that bureaucracy weakened accountability, which caused the state to lose resources annually, saying there was no doubt there had always been issues of misappropriated funds on contracts.
He said, “SEND GHANA is not interested in the blame game and name callings. We are concerned about how we can collectively address issues that emanate from our monitoring through platforms where we can discuss the issues.”
GNA