Professor Kobby Mensah
Professor Kobby Mensah of the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) has outlined what he considers to be major defects of the Performance Tracker which was launched by the government on April 10, 2024.
Contributing to a panel discussion on TV3’s KeyPoints program, Professor Kobby Mensah, provided a holistic assessment of the website, questioning the rationale, scope, cost and features of the project.
On the rationale, Professor Kobby Mensah sought answers on whether the Performance Tracker was designed purposely for the NPP government or it is a property of the state.
He wondered why the Performance Tracker would feature only projects of the Akufo-Addo government and not those of previous governments.
Dr Kobby Mensah raised issues with the user-friendliness of the website and the non-existence of certain features which were touted by the Minister of Works and Housing, Oppong Nkrumah during the launch.
“In terms of rationale, it is not for open government, it is for something else. Now let’s look at the scope of it. Why are they saying some of the projects which have been inputted are erroneous? Are they erroneous because they were uploaded as NPP projects and people have tagged them as NDC projects? Governance is continuous so whether it is an NDC or NPP project, it is a Ghana project. Unfortunately, some politicians have become so partisan to the extent that projects that get started by other administrations are abandoned by them.
“They have to tell us the scope of it. If it is an open government project, why would you only upload so-called NPP projects alone when people funding these projects are Ghanaians and should be fed information about the entire development of the country?
“Let’s look at the timing. Why do you always have to wait till when we are getting to elections before you bring out a performance tracker? The politicians must have a renewal of minds because they are costing us. There is always a theory behind every project and I’m sure the person who built the tracker went to the classroom to be taught but what is the quality guide he was taught about developing a website? What is the quality guide?
“If you go to the tracker and you go to ‘our achievement’ and click on ‘project search’, it gives you this filter. Filter means it will put you in the scope of the key thing you select. You select education and when you select education, the logic function is that I should have the components of education but on this website, when you click ‘categories’ under the filter, what shows up is affordable housing, afforestation, agenda 111, airport, ambulance etc.
“How is this related to education? How is this user-friendly? If I were the minister, I would not organize a launch in front of the whole world to talk about this. I’m scandalized by this. Look at the telephone number on it. Quality websites have quality information but what you have there is a mobile number. For a government project, you should be seeing 030 but what you are seeing is 053. It is embarrassing.
“The Minister (referring to Oppong Nkrumah) was saying it's real-time, this cannot be real-time. He also said there is a GPS location on it. Click on it and you will realize that it is non-existent. Where it says, web page, when you click on it, it takes you nowhere. The minister claims videos and pictures of the projects have been uploaded, where are they?” he questioned.
About the Performance Tracker
The Performance Tracker platform is designed to give Ghanaian citizens easy access to valuable information on the performance of the Government of Ghana since 2017.
The government believes showcasing the achievements can enhance transparency and accountability and build public trust in the government’s ability to deliver on its promises.
Watch his submission from 2:06:00
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