By Philip Yatai
A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Connected Development (CODE), says its is synergising with government and citizens platforms towards authenticating constituency projects in the state through tracking.
CODE’s Programme Director, Mrs Lucy Abagi stated this at a one-day meeting in Kaduna, to disseminate 2021 report of Deepening Citizens Interests in Government Spending and Addressing Accompanying Corrupt Practices (DeSPAAC) project.
Abagi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the side line of the meeting, that some of the platforms, also referred to as ‘Accountability Mechanisms’ found in different sectors, had expressed readiness to partner with CODE in tracking the constituency projects.
NAN reports that Accountability Mechanism is a permanent dialogue platform made up of government and citizens partners working together to ensure citizens engagement in governance and promote transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services.
She said that the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), a governance programme, had supported the establishment of various Accountability Mechanisms in different sectors in the state.
She identified some of them as Local Government Accountability Mechanism, Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism, and Kaduna Maternal Accountability Mechanism among others.
She explained that the mechanisms would be working with CODE’s Community Monitoring Teams (CMTs) to deepen citizens interest in government spending.
According to her, the Mechanisms are currently serving as dialogue platforms between government and citizens to strengthen citizens participation in governance and improved service delivery.
She said CODE would leverage on these existing structures for a robust monitoring of constituency projects across Kaduna state to ensure quality and timely delivery of the projects.
“The findings of the 2021 tracking activities by our CMTs will be shared with the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and other critical stakeholders for appropriate action where applicable.
“We will follow up to ensure that loopholes identified in the delivery of the project are address by contractors and those in-charge of implementing the various constituency projects.
Abagi said that the accountability mechanism would be working with CODE’s CMTs to be organising townhall meetings and community outreaches to empower community members with information to monitor the delivery of projects.
Mr Kinsley Agu, Programme Manager, CODE, said that the objective of the meeting was to disseminate findings from the 2021 activities under the DeSPAAC project being supported by MacArthur Foundation.
Agu said that the three-year project, which began in November 2020, involved empowerment of community structures to provide public oversight on government spending in their communities.
According to him, this measure is to ensure effective service delivery on constituency projects in education, health and water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors.
“So far, we were able to track 23 projects worth about N1.2billion, earmarked for 2020 and 2021 in 30 communities across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.
“Going forward, we want to strengthen existing mechanism and systems to enable us to achieve bigger results.
“We want to see citizens and government working together at the local government level in line with the principles of Open Government Partnership,” he said. (NAN)
