By Yussif Ibrahim
Kumasi, Feb. 16, GNA – The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), has organised a day’s training on monitoring audit recommendations for members of the Local Accountability Network (LANet) in the Kumasi Metropolis.
The training was to build their capacity to follow up on governance issues, especially on social accountability to ensure prudent use of resources.
The training programme is part of a two-year “Building Evidence for Increased Accountability in Ghana through a Multi-stakeholder Initiative” project, being implemented in 15 districts in the country.
The project, which is being funded by the Hewlett Foundation, seeks to build the capacity of LANets across the implementing districts to monitor the implementation of audit recommendations and the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) by Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.
The expectation is that misappropriated funds in selected public institutions would be recovered while strengthening financial management systems for efficient spending and reduction of leakages of public funds.
Mr. Bright Sowu, Head of Programmes, GACC, said as part of the project, audit citations and accompanying recommendations related to selected public institutions from 2021-2023 would be collated from the Auditor General’s reports.
He said selected public institutions would be engaged periodically to advocate for implementation of audit recommendations and NACAP presentations.
Mr Sowu said beneficiaries of the training would follow up on the implementation of the Auditor General’s recommendations related to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA).
He said they would meet the KMA and discuss the audit recommendations from the 2021 report and the NACAP activities for 2023, saying that they would act as monitoring mechanism for the KMA.
“Nobody can lead the fight better than the citizens whose money is used for government expenditure, so they are the best people to monitor what their money is being used for,” he observed.
He urged them not to be confrontational when engaging officials of the Assembly because they would need the cooperation of the officials to get the job done.
Participants took turns to propose measures that could be adopted to make corruption unattractive to public officials.
GNA