The citizens of Mampong in the Ashanti Region have become more proactive and interested in social accountability issues because of the Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Forum (SPEFA) organized by SWEDEC-GHANA.
One of the project goals of SPEFA is to improve citizens’ engagement with the Municipal Assembly and their perception of the management of the resources to increase infrastructural development with limited corruption.
The achievements since the inception of the project have been improved collaboration between the citizens and assemblies, improved capacities of the citizens to engage with the municipal assembly and improved infrastructure development because of demand by the citizens.
As a result of the capacity building process, the municipal assembly has used it urban grant to expend Mampong Central Market with fifty lockable stores.
On Thursday January 26, 2017, as part of SWEDEC’s training series on governance and social accountability, 152 citizens of Mampong were trained on financial literacy and inclusion.
During the training, founder of SWEDEC-GHANA Oxford Osei Bonsu stimulated the participants through the recap of the last SPEFA meeting and later touched on the new topic “financial literacy and inclusion”.
At the end of the meeting, the participants recapped some of the benefits of the meeting including building a good relationship between the Assembly and the community.
Citizens now knowing their duties and being more responsible to support development and understanding the duties and responsibilities of the assembly too.
The Budget Officer of the Assembly Mr. Antwi Akowuah stressed on the importance of planning ahead of budgeting.
Planning is key to development as it helps an individual to set priorities and guide expenditure.
He mentioned the need for citizens to save with financial institutions to access financial support in times of difficulty.
The Budget Officer mentioned that as citizens, the ability to raise and spend money is budgeting, then procurement.
He ended by hinting that accountability is very necessary for efficient expenditure money.
On his part, the Coordinating Director shared information with the citizens on the need to pay taxes such as property rates, explaining properties are now weighed and charged according to the property size and other factors.
He mentioned that as part of the mechanism to raise money more for the municipality, they have trained more revenue collectors and one of the principle is that they are not supposed to keep monies on them for more than 48 hours.
They have to deposit the money to the bank and bring back pay in slips to the office.
The Coordinating Director mentioned all monies of the Assembly are kept in the bank and mentioned that the assembly could lose money through the process of revenue collection, if the collector failed to account properly.
He later mentioned that one of the ways to ensure that resources are kept well is through the preparation of its annual financial statement every year where external auditors audit for safe financial management.
A participant asked why the assembly collects 10% after contract is awarded and who receives the 10% because he believed that is not a prudent action to promote development in the municipality.
But the Co-ordinating Director noted that even the President has warned against such practice.
At the end of the event, participanrs were urged to pay their rates so that the assembly performs its work effectively and Oxford Osei Bonsu promised there will be proper accountability of all taxes received.
