PROJECT NEWSLETTER July, 2016 No. 0 2 CITIZENS UNHAPPY WITH AUDIT FINDINGS Demand improved performance from their District Assemblies itizens in 50 districts across the country have expressed dismay over the findings of performance Caudits conducted by the Ghana Audit Service in their respective districts and are demanding improved performance from their assemblies. Participants at some of the public forums organised by CARE, IBIS and ISODEC in the 50 districts to share the findings of the audit, were disappointed about revelations that their District Assemblies did not adhere fully to the provisions of the Public Procurement Law in procuring and engaging contractors to execute the two A participant expressing her concerns capital projects that were audited. at the public forum in Pusiga, UE/R. Continued on Page 4 UNDERSTANDING GSAM’S PERFORMANCE AUDITS OF 50 DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND KEY ISSUES 8 PROCESSES 11 GSAM PROJECT NEWSLETTER – MONTHLY BULLETIN MONTHLY JULY 2016 JULY GSAM in CLEMENT TANDOH - Chief of Party Brief… “Strengthen citizen oversight Welcome Note of capital development projects to improve local government he last few months have been a busy, yet rewarding transparency, accountability one for the GSAM project. We collaborated with and performance.” Tthe Ghana Audit Service to develop the District Assemblies Capital Project Performance Scorecard and proceeded to disseminate the audit findings and scorecards across the 50 districts in which the audits he Ghana’s Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (GSAM) is a five-year USAID-funded project seeking to were conducted. Indeed, this dissemination started at Timprove transparency, accountability and performance the district level and has been taken to the community at the local government level, particularly in the planning and level to deepen citizens’ understanding of the issues and implementation of capital projects. their engagement with the District Assemblies on capital CARE International in Ghana, IBIS in Ghana and Integrated Social project planning and implementation processes. Development Centre (ISODEC), who form the GSAM Consortium, are working together with the Ghana Audit Service (GAS), In this edition of our project newsletter, we present to you the selected CSOs and other local and national level stakeholders to summarised performance scorecards for the 50 districts and implement the project in 100 districts from 2014 to 2019. also a summary of the audit findings, key recommendations In 50 of the 100 districts, which are referred to as the GAS and issues emerging, which require the attention of policy Districts, the GSAM Consortium is conducting public information makers and implementers. campaigns to inform citizens about the outcome of performance audits conducted by GAS on their District Assemblies. GAS We are also happy to share with you the story of Dzolokpuita, evaluated how these 50 assemblies plan and implement capital where the results of accountability through citizen-government development projects. Informing citizens of the findings would engagement are becoming more and more evident. These and empower them to demand improved performance from their many other success stories emerging from our communities DAs.. give us the impetus to keep our hands on the wheel. Unfortunately, due to limited space, we are only able to share In the second set of 50 districts, referred to as the Social Accountability (SA) Districts, the GSAM Consortium is with you a few of these stories and would bring you more in strengthening the capacity of local CSOs and citizens to demand subsequent editions. accountability by increasing the availability of information on Meanwhile, in order to enhance your understanding of how we capital development projects and strengthening the capacity of CSOs and citizens to monitor, evaluate and provide feedback on are promoting accountability in the 50 social accountability District Assemblies’ performance in the implementation of these districts, we have included in this newsletter a snapshot of our projects. social accountability processes. It outlines the various activities that CSOs and citizens are engaged in as part of exercising The project is focused on capital projects because Metropolitan, oversight of capital projects. Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) spend over 70 percent of their resources on building capital projects, such Little by little, we are seeing how the GSAM project is unfolding as schools, clinics, water facilities, toilets, etc. Enhanced in the 100 project districts and the results are becoming accountability and performance of MMDAs in the planning and evident. On behalf of the consortium and our CSO partners, execution of these projects would therefore lead to reduced I wish to thank the Ghana Audit Service and the District tendencies for corruption, improved quality of development Assemblies for their support in this process. projects, better standards of living, especially for the poor and 2 greater satisfaction among citizens. during a monitoring visit to projects in the community. The Chief of Ayim and Assembly officials interacting GSAM GSAM PROJECT NEWSLETTER – MONTHLY BULLETIN MONTHLY JULY 2016 JULY AKUAPIM SOUTH ASSEMBLY TERMINATES CONTRACT FOR AYIM SCHOOL PROJECT …In response to citizens’ concerns of non-performance he primary school in Ayim is “We have had challenges getting the contractor on site and so we decided to terminate the contract and to re-award it over 30 years-old and has rarely to another contractor,” said the District Planning Officer, Mr Tseen any form of renovation or James Atambilla Abugre. maintenance. As a result, the school He said the Assembly had made efforts to get in touch with the building is now in a very poor shape contractor, but to no avail. According to the Programmes Coordinator of Hopeline Institute, and when it rains the kids are forced to Ebow Graham, since the commencement of the GSAM project, go home because the roof leaks badly. the people of Ayim have shown so much interest in monitoring capital projects in the area and are always demanding some Last year, the Assembly approved the construction of a six- action to ensure that the right things are done. classroom block and ancillary facilities for the school, with funding from its District Assemblies’ Common Fund (DACF) “The Assembly has also been very open and has been on hand allocation. The project was scheduled to start on the 31st of July, to share details of the contract to us to make it available to the 2015 and be completed by 31st July, 2016. people,” Mr Graham further stated. However, as at the end of 2015, work on the project had still not Ayim is a small town located in the Eastern part of the Akwapim started although the land had been cleared. south district, about 34 km from Aburi the capital of the district. The people of Ayim are predominantly peasant farmers growing “When the contractor heard that the community were now food crops like cassava and maize with a few people growing monitoring the project and that we were going to have a GSAM pineapples largely for export. community durbar to discuss the status of the project, he quickly moved his workers to site in February 2016,” Nesto Kwame Dellor, a community development monitor mentioned. He said after raising the foundation to a certain level, the contractor abandoned the project again. The community took up the issues observed and repeatedly engaged with their local leaders and the Assembly calling on them to either get the contractor to resume work or find a new contractor. Thankfully, the Assembly heeded to the cry 3 of the people and decided to terminate the contract. GSAM PROJECT NEWSLETTER – Chiefs and elders listening to presentations on the audit findings at the forum in Karaga, NR. JULY 2016 JULY A visually-impaired woman who participated in the forum at Paga, UE/R. Continued from Front Page The assemblies, nonetheless, welcomed the audit findings and scores allocated them on the Performance Scorecards and committed to address the weaknesses CITIZENS identified. Meanwhile, following the issues emanating from the performance audits, citizens UNHAPPY and some of the assemblies are calling for more performance audits to be done WITH AUDIT FINDINGS annually. “We have been discussing issues related to the assemblies’ work, but findings Citizens were also displeased that some like this have never been exposed. We need to continue with these audits and also assemblies made payments to contractors and expand the scope to other projects,” the District Manager for the National Health service providers for works poorly executed Insurance Scheme in West Gonja, Mr John Kipo Kaara suggested. or none at all and that many of the assemblies faltered in monitoring, supervising and reporting periodically on the projects, which led to poor quality of work in some cases. “I think that conducting audits and making such information available to the public would help to The assemblies were however lauded for engaging in consultation with their communities reduce the falsehood that people spread about the and other stakeholders in initiating the projects work of assemblies. Sometimes, we hear on radio to meet the most prioritised needs of their and see on social media people saying things about communities. the assembly, which are not true,” In responding to the findings and citizens’ concerns, some assembly staff argued that their Mr Johnson Saborh assemblies had met some of the project planning District Chief Executive (DCE), and implementation requirements, but could not Sissala East District, Upper West Region provide the appropriate documentations to the audit team at the time of the audit. It also emerged that whilst some of the assemblies had taken for granted a number of project planning procedures, others actually had capacity constraints, particularly in monitoring and supervising projects. “When there are no funds, it becomes difficult for monitoring to take place because even the contractor may not be regular on site, especially if the source of funding is not regular,” said An Assistant Director at the Jomoro District Assembly, Mr Appiah Samuel.