Tamale, July 27, GNA – SEND GHANA, a civil society group, has held a national dialogue to deliberate on findings of its citizen-led monitoring of infrastructure delivery in the country.
The dialogue, held in Tamale, brought together representatives from the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD) and other stakeholders to discuss infrastructural delivery issues that required national attention.
The event formed part of the two-year Monitoring for Financial Savings (M4FS) project being implemented by SEND GHANA with funding support from Integrity Action.
It was dubbed: “National Policy Dialogue on Findings of Citizen-led Monitoring of Infrastructure Delivery at the Local Leve.”
The M4FS project, which sought to empower citizens to monitor the delivery of infrastructure projects, saw the monitoring of how District Assemblies delivered projects in the areas of health and education.
The year-long monitoring was carried out in the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Tolon District Assembly, West Gonja, Savelugu and Yendi Municipal Assemblies.
Findings of the monitoring showed that there was a delay in the release of resources from the national level for projects and weak collaboration between district and regional level actors in implementing national level projects.
The findings further indicated weak transparency in project delivery. Meanwhile, 59 per cent of community members surveyed were unsatisfied with the projects’ delivery even though they were helpful.
Mr Jonathan Dery, Project Officer at SEND GHANA, who presented the findings, said 40 local monitors were trained on infrastructure monitoring, advocacy, and communication to enable them identify strengths and weaknesses in the projects.
He said a four member Loca, and Monitoring Groups was also trained in project management in communities and issued with identification cards, who reported through the Development Check application.
He noted that the projects were monitored by identifying problems, fixing them and seeking information from community members.
Mr. Mumuni Mohammed, Northern Regional Programme Manager of SEND GHANA said the project found out that there were projects awarded at the national level by the MOF and GETFund that District Assemblies did not have control over.
He said this made monitoring difficult and affected accountability of contractors of such projects to the Assemblies and citizenry, who required certain information from the Assemblies.
Mr. Richard Ebo Amuah, Head of Fiscal Decentralisation Unit at the MoF said the Ministry did not deliberately withhold the release of District Assembly Common Fund (DACF).
He said: “There has been improvement in release of the DACF since 2017 but the fiscal environment currently is such that it is not that easy for us to release funds even though we have released up to the first quarter.”
He urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to engage with project contractors to seek necessary information, adding that MMDAs had the overall responsibility for the development of districts or municipalities they headed.
Mr Rufai Mohammed, Savelugu Municipal Coordinating Director called for the involvement of District Assemblies in award of projects through circulars or letters to keep them informed about the projects.
Madam Esther Tetteh, Senior Programme Officer at MLGDRD said the Ministry was always available to provide information to members of the public.
GNA