CSOs, Media urged to deepen watchdog role at MMDAs

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the media have been urged to deepen their watchdog roles at the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) level to ensure that quality services are rendered.

The Deputy Director of the Institute of Local Government, Tamale Campus, Dr Richard Kambootah made the call in Tamale during a two-day capacity building programme on Social Auditing.

Social Auditing also sometimes referred to as Social Accountability is a tool often used to monitor and assess how government policies and programmes are implemented at the district level to ensure quality service delivery as well as address the issue of accountability.

The programme, organized by the Social Accountability Platform for Local Governance Performance in Ghana Project with support from the European Union brought together CSOs and media practitioners from the Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.

Nana Ofei Kwasi Agyeman , the Manager in charge of the Social Accountability Platform for Local Governance Performance in Ghana Project , said until the Right to the Information bill wss passed into law Social Auditing would continue to be a problem.

He said although there were benefits that could be accrued from Social Auditing and these include creating public awareness of service delivery gaps, assist in building the trust and confidence between citizens and service providers and holding public officials accountable, beneficiaries of corruption might want to manipulate the processes to their advantage.