APRM is interested in good Governance and efficient service delivery

Most Reverend Paul Bemele, the Catholic Bishop of Wa Diocese, has said the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was crucial and contributes significantly to good governance and efficient service delivery.

Bishop Bemele, a member of the Governing Council of APRM, said this at a Validation workshop on “The State of Governance and Service Delivery in the Bolgatanga Municipality” under the APRM.

The purpose of the Validation workshop is to afford the participants, drawn from all walks of life in the Municipality and its environs, the opportunity to validate the finding conducted by the Municipal Oversight Committee of the APRM to see whether they truly reflect on the issues on the ground and to prompt the duty bearers to act on them.

He said corruption and bad leadership were the bane of development of African countries of which Ghana was not an exception and that the APRM sought to address that phenomenon.

Most Rev Bamile said since Ghana started implementing the APRM, it had chalked many successes. These include contributing to opening up space for civil society engagement in national dialogue, passage of key legislation such as the Domestic Violence Act, initiations of key intervention programmes such the Free Maternal Health Care, Livelihood Enhancement and Empowerment Programme(LEAP), Capitation Grant and School Feeding Programme, strengthening the legal framework of fighting corruption such as the passage of legislation on Public Procurement Act and Internal Audit Agency Act among others.

He said despite the achievements, most governance issues raised in the Programme of Action had not been implemented, issues on constitutional matters such as the election of District Chief Executives and separating the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Department roles and others. He appealed to all citizens to take keen interest and participate actively when it comes to social auditing and the APRM activities.

The Upper East Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Abang Cletus, praised progress made so far since the inception of the APRM in Ghana in 2003, said sound and cooperate governance, socio-economic governance and development and economic governance and management had been achieved.

The Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Edward Ayagle, said the Municipality and its environs had recorded development in education, health, agriculture and roads.