SPEFA Schooled On Governance Issues

0

The Adentan civil society group, SPEFA, Wednesday deepened their knowledge and competence of local government administration with lectures from officials of the Adentan Municipal Assembly (AdMA).

DSC01023The Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) group was sensitized on some key areas of the assembly?s operations.

These covered presentations by officials of the AdMA on the processes of performance monitoring and evaluation, preparation of financial statement and reporting, as well as internal auditing processes.

The forum, the third so far organized by the Assembly in collaboration with Intervention Forum (IF) and SNV-Ghana, two non-governmental organizations, sought to empower the SPEFA members to understand the workings of the Municipal Assembly so as to enable them to contribute effectively to its activities.

The group, which insists on transparency and accountability, profits from the forum to deliberate on other issues affecting the development of the various communities within the municipality during town hall and other meetings.

It is made up of representatives from civil society organizations such as persons with disabilities, women?s groups, unit committees, NGOs, neighbourhood watch committees, trade associations, zonal and community leaders, and the media, among others.

Addressing the meeting, Madam Nora Ollennu, Chief Executive Officer of IF, local capacity builder for the SPEFA group, said the forum had as its major focus of getting the group well equipped with the relevant information on the key delivering services and processes of the AdMA in local communities to promote real development.

Some of these, she said, had to deal with development planning; budgeting and revenue management; procurement and assets management, adding that the day?s focus was on financial reporting and auditing, and performance monitoring and evaluation.

?Our main goal is to promote social accountability at the local level through empowering the ordinary citizen for effective civic engagement,? Madam Ollennu said.

The SPEFA platform, she said, was where citizens were empowered with the requisite knowledge and expected to apply skills acquired to exercise their rights.

This is to be done by scrutinizing the activities of the public authorities in the utilization of public resources to improve governance and achieve real development.

Madam Ollennu mentioned the successes chalked by the group over the past year and the recognition gained in the Assembly, as well as its involvement in the assembly decision-making processes of the AdMA.

Mr Kofi Simpeh, Assistant Development Planning Officer of the AdMA, walked the group through the various processes of performance monitoring and evaluation, while Madam Matilda Yaotey, Municipal Finance Officer, dwelt on the preparation of financial statement and reporting.

Madam Enyonam Adjetey, Municipal Internal Auditor, also schooled the group on the activities of her outfit, explaining the rationale for the unit at the AdMA.

The lectures elicited interesting reactions from the gathering that sought deeper understanding of various issues confronting the AdMA and its activities.

One issue that generated lots of interest was about the monitoring and evaluation of contracts and projects awarded by the assembly or central government, with members agitating that government must liaise with the AdMA when awarding projects to contractors.

This, they believed, would enable members of the communities to properly assess progress of work and identify and monitor any lapses or defects in such works.

The group later selected a Steering Committee comprising representative each of the various bodies comprising the SPEFA.

GNA

Send your news stories to [email protected] Follow News Ghana on Google News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here