By Deladem Nanevie, GNA
Tema, June 10, GNA – The newly inaugurated Tema Metro Social Audit Committee has identified poor sanitation and indiscriminate waste disposal at the Tema Community One Market as its first priority intervention as it begins work to promote accountability and improve public service delivery.
The six-member committee was inaugurated by Mr Frederick Mawuli Agbenu, Greater Accra Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), during the annual Constitutional Quiz Competition.
Speaking at the inauguration, Mr Agbenu said Ghana’s democratic governance system was founded on the principles of transparency, accountability, citizen participation, and the rule of law, stressing that those principles were essential for effective service delivery and sustainable development.
He urged members of the committee to work together and leverage their diverse expertise to address challenges confronting residents of the Tema Metropolis.
The committee was constituted following a social audit exercise that brought together residents, students, teachers, market women, and other stakeholders to identify development and service delivery concerns within the metropolis.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Timothy Sowah, Chairman of the Social Audit Committee, said the body would serve as a community oversight mechanism to monitor development projects, demand accountability from duty bearers, and encourage citizen participation in local governance.
Mr Sowah explained that consultations conducted by the committee revealed a number of concerns, including deteriorating roads, poor drainage and sewage systems, sanitation challenges, unemployment, and incidents of student indiscipline and insecurity.
According to him, stakeholders also raised concerns about the poor sanitary conditions at the Tema Community One Market, prompting the committee to select the issue as its first major project.
“The Social Audit Committee will prioritise the issue of indiscriminate waste disposal and the poor sanitary conditions at the Tema Community One Market. That will be our first major project to tackle,” Mr Sowah stated.
He said the committee would engage the Waste Management Department of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) and other relevant stakeholders to address the situation and improve sanitation standards at the market.
Mr Sowah noted that the committee would also organise community sensitisation programmes, town hall meetings, and media engagements to educate residents on their civic rights and responsibilities while promoting greater participation in local governance.
He stressed that the committee was not established to witch-hunt public officials but to promote transparency, accountability, and shared responsibility in addressing community challenges.
Mr Sowah expressed optimism that collaboration among residents, local authorities, and state institutions would help address critical development challenges and improve living conditions within the metropolis.
The committee comprises Mr Timothy Sowah, the Tema Metropolitan Inter-Party Dialogue Committee; Ms Gifty N.A. Tetteh, the Apostolic Church Ghana; Mr Robert Mensah Gbley, Head of the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development; Ms Matilda Mensah, the Tema Market Association; Mr Fidel Bortey, Acting Director of NCCE-Tema Metro; and Ms Princessa Owusu Biney, NCCE-Tema Metro.
GNA
Edited by Laudia Anyorkor Nunoo/ Kenneth Odeng Adade