RCCs fail to monitor, evaluate district projects – Dean
The lack of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in the various districts by the regional administration is hampering coordination of national development interventions and social accountability in the management of public funds in the country.
Mr Eric Odro Osae, Dean of Studies and Research at the Institute of Local Government Studies, who revealed this, said many of the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCC) in the country last year failed to undertake monitoring, evaluation and coordination of various projects as expected.
“The Directors of Departments who form the RCCs and M&E teams had the mandate and responsibility to undertake M&E activities at least four times a year but the reality is that some regions did not do M&E at all, whiles others did only one M&E activity in the whole of last year”, he said.
Mr Osae was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview at the sidelines of a one-day workshop held for Departmental Heads at the Regional and District to develop M&E framework for composite budgeting and capacity support towards 2013 budget, in Tamale..
Participants were schooled in conceptual framework and the role of the RCC in composite budgeting, requirements of budget development process, budget implementation and auditing issues.
Mr Osae said although regional administrations had the necessary structures and the capacity to undertake monitoring and evaluation many of them complained about the lack of resources to undertake such activities.
“In our governance decentralization system, resources in the form of fund, human beings and assets are transferred to the regional level to be used to improve the livelihood of the ordinary Ghanaian hence the need for M&E by the regions”, he said.
Mr Osae explained that M&E helps to identify districts that are underdeveloped, ensure value for money, prevent the implementation of projects that were variance to national development and streamline all activities.
He said if the M&E team continued to shirk its responsibility, funds could be misappropriated and break down of law and order as well as haphazard implementation of unplanned projects.
Mr Osae said the Institute was developing a strategy to ensure that funds disbursed for M&E were used for that purpose, and added that no system could operate successfully without M&E.
Source: GNA