Tepa (Ash), June 22, GNA - Participants at a two-day workshop on good governance and democracy held at Tepa in the Ahafo-Ano North district have advocated for effective decentralization and social auditing as a panacea to deal with widespread corruption which has seriously undermined the development of the nation.

They have consequently called for the proper positioning of local government structures through the review of the procedure for the appointment of District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives, and the composition of the unit committees, town and area councils and the district assembly.

The workshop themed, "Fighting Corruption - Agenda for Democracy and Good Governance", was under the auspices of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and was attended by 70 participants comprising heads of departments, chiefs, religious leaders, among others.

The participants also expressed a consensus opinion that people living in the rural areas are experiencing abject poverty and depravity because the nation's resources are being manipulated by just a few corrupt and selfish individuals and called for a halt to that to move the country forward.

On social auditing, the participants suggested that the people must be mandated to assess the performance of public policies, programmes and projects to influence the processes, outcome and impacts as against the corresponding budgetary allocation.

"Such a system of checks and balances would help stem corruption as it would spark some fear among public officials to be more sensitive, responsive, transparent and accountable in their performances", they noted.