Sekondi, April 26, GNA - Mr Kwaku Baa Owusu, Western Regional Director of the National Commission For Civic Education (NCCE), on Wednesday called on Ghanaians to demand accountability from Government officials and people occupying leadership positions to make the country's democracy meaningful.

He made the call at a press conference organised by the NCCE on the celebration of the Sixth Constitution Week at Sekondi. The celebration is under the theme "Local Participation and Social Auditing For Poverty Reduction."

Mr Owusu said the demand for accountability should serve as the basis in the fight against poverty because there was a strong link between poverty and corruption.

He said social audit was the mechanism that allowed or empowered the citizens to ensure accountability from their leaders at all levels of social life.

The NCCE Regional Director noted that there was nothing wrong with the people demanding accountability from their leaders because it was their constitutional right to make the country's democracy meaningful. He said social audit was often demanded from public officials because they derived their power and resources from the people and must account for their stewardship.

Mr Owusu said elections were part of the social audit but social audit must be carried out on regular basis.

He said no individual was above the law but "It is a common place for politicians and other leaders to ignore the rest of the citizenry and misbehave because they perceived most of the people are ignorant of the complexities on issues of local and national governance." Mr Owusu said, "At present, we need to empower ourselves, our people in the communities to feel confident that they have the capacity to confront their own problems and find the way towards finding solutions to them rather than the tendency towards passive reliance on State or Government."

"A poor system of local government can work well if people are honest, efficient and determined to make it work, the best system will fail if people are dishonest, inefficient or apathetic, " He added. 26 April 06