By Godwill Arthur-Mensah
Accra, April 10, GNA – The Government on Wednesday unveiled a performance tracker that captured the various infrastructure projects executed under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government since 2017.
It is aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability of all government projects implemented so far.
The performance tracker is an upgraded version of the delivery tracker launched in 2020 by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. The public can access the tracker on this website: www.performancetracker.gov.gh or download the app on the playstore or app store.
At the launch of the performance tracker at GIMPA in Accra, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Works and Housing, said the tracker was a database of government projects scattered across the 261 metropolitan, municipal and districts.
It captured more than 13,000 projects executed by the Government as of June 2023 with their geolocations and photographs for easy validation and analysis by individuals and corporate entities.
Mr Nkrumah, who unveiled the tracker on behalf of the Vice President, said the performance tracker continuously updated itself and had been organised into five major parts for easy navigation and comparison.
It had also been broken down into 22 thematic areas, 105 categories of all the infrastructure projects being executed and ongoing across the 28 Ministries and Office of the Government Machinery as well as in the 16 regions and 261 districts.
He mentioned some of the categories as roads and transport, education, health, extractives, job creation, sectoral reports, and regional and district reports with the necessary matrix for easy identification, analysis, comparison and validation by individuals and corporate entities.
Mr Nkrumah said the tracker was a tool for empowering the taxpayers to check, validate and be informed on how the government had utilised their resources and promote transparency and accountability from duty bearers.
The Minister mentioned that as of June 2023, government had created two million and eighty-seven thousand jobs since 2017, with 5.7 million beneficiaries under Free SHS and Free TVET, 17.7 million people enrolled onto the National Health Insurance Scheme and 1,448 rural telephony sites constructed across the country to enhance communication in the underserved communities.
The Minister lauded the collaborative works of the metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives, regional coordinators, chief directors, ministers, and head of the Civil Service for providing relevant information ensuing the overall success of the initiative.
He also commended the staff of the Information Services Department for providing photographs of the various projects and a special team that worked tirelessly to tag the addresses and locations of the listed projects.
The Minister believed that the tracker would inform the citizens on how the Government had been utilising the public funds and minimise the misinformation and negativity on many social media platforms about alleged misappropriation of state resources.
Madam Fatimatu Abubakar, the Information Minister Designate, in her welcome remarks, said the tracker would ensure transparency and accountability of infrastructure projects executed by the government.
The platform, she said, would also help to address the long-standing concerns about the accuracy and reliability of project implementation, as well as serving as a reliable mechanism for showcasing the progress and impact of infrastructure projects nationwide.
Professor Kwaku Appiah-Adu, Head of the Delivery Unit, Office of the Vice President, took the audiences through the various templates of the tracker, noting that the President assembled a team to put the data structures of the tracker in the last quarter of 2022.
He said the team worked collaboratively with the chief directors, ministers of State, MMDCEs, Ghana Statistical Service and Head of the Civil Service for cross-checking and validation of facts and inputs to ensure accuracy of all the projects listed on the tracker.
GNA