Show keen interest in financial management of assemblies
Mr Solomon Asiedu, Coordinating Director of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), has urged the media and civil society groups to show keen interest in the fiscal management and administration of district assemblies to promote accountability and transparency.
He said it was important for all stakeholders to be vigilant and be interested in how resources were utilised to provide the required development projects for the benefit of the people.
Mr Asiedu made the appeal at a sensitization workshop for chiefs, trade associations, assembly members, journalists and other civil society groups in Kumasi under the Local Government Capacity Support Project (LGCSP) – Component Three (3).
The LGCSP is a US$175 million Government of Ghana-World Bank initiative targeting 46 metropolitan and municipal assemblies.
The five-year project is aimed at addressing some of the weaknesses in the current decentralization framework.
It is supporting efforts at strengthening inter-governmental fiscal framework, local public financial management and accountability for improved infrastructure and services in the metropolitan and municipal assembles as well as improving citizens’ engagement with the assemblies.
Mr Asiedu said the workshop was meant to create public awareness and enhance the capacity of the participants to comment on local government financial matters to achieve good governance at the local level.
Ms Irene Messiba, Director of the Social Accountability Unit (SAU), Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLRD), said the LGCSP, which started in 2012, had four components – strengthening the fiscal framework for decentralization, enhancing decentralized urban service delivery, stimulating demand for accountable governance and service delivery as well as institutional and project management support.
Component Three is assisting to empower the media and civil society groups through capacity building and formation of networks to monitor and report on local government financial management issues.
Source: GNA