Make contracts details available to citizens – CHRAJ to government

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has called on government to make contract details available to host communities.

The commission is worried several contractors end up cheating the public because no one holds them to account.

Principal Investigator for CHRAJ, Samuel Asante Yeboah contends the public will be better armed to police state projects if such contract specifications are public knowledge.

Speaking on Ultimate FM Monday, he said “sometimes, some of these corruption-related issues that we hear is as a result of the lack of openness within which some public institutions operate. So we were even thinking that with the passage of the right to information bill into an act, some of these organisations will be open with their operations.”

He added “because as a matter of fact, if a road is being constructed in the town that I live in, I should be able to know the amount of money involved. What are the specifications on the road, are we going to have many road-ramps, would there be a signpost and where will it be located?

“If I am armed with all this information and the road is constructed and I can’t find those things that I’ve been told are in the specification, then I’ll be able to question it. But it appears that most of the things that we do are shrouded in secrecy”.