The Tema West Municipal Directorate of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) has held a community engagement programme for citizens to hold leaders accountable for their stewardship.

The programme focused on the Kaizer Electoral Area in Tema Community Five, and brought together the Assemblymember, Unit Committee members, officials of NCCE, representatives of health, education and other agencies in the Tema West Municipality.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the Tema West Municipal Director of NCCE, Mr. Fidel Bortey, observed that, “It is very important that as citizens of the country, we meet our duty bearers, question them, and receive vital information about progress of certain issues they may not have known.”

Mr. Bortey informed that “in instances where we think that we can also come in and help with problems where we live, we should not wait for government, but help in our own small ways.”

The Municipal Director of NCCE said when bad things happened in the community, they undermined the security and wellbeing of members hence the need to address issues before they got out of control.

“We move into the communities, they bring out their problems, and we help them rank them; we form committees and find ways of moving towards solving the problems. From here the committees would be moving to ensure that the issues that came up were resolved,” Mr. Bortey said.

He observed that out of such social auditing programmes conducted by the NCCE, “Schools are being built, Markets are being constructed, drainages and bridges are being constructed; even if they are not large scale projects, such small interventions make a difference in the lives of the people.

“If you push and government comes in, the better, otherwise the members of the community should find other ways of addressing such concerns. "
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The Assembly Member for the Kaiser Electoral Area, Nana Yaw Opoku Danso, observed the commitment of members of his electoral area to calls to meet with their leaders, which helped in the promotion of community participation in development.

Mr. Danso appealed to the local government to receive such suggestions from the communities in order to allow development to go on.

Out of the many problems identified, members of the community prioritized roads, sewage, streetlights, school fencing and sanitation in the order of importance.

Social auditing falls under the Accountability, Rule of law and anti-Corruption Programme (ARAP) of the NCCE, and sponsored by the European Union.