NCCE to deepen citizens' participation in local governance

Ho, May, 2, GNA - The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) is to institutionalise civic participation mechanisms at all levels of governance to deepen citizens' participation beyond general elections. Mr Issaka Richard Zakari, Volta Regional Director of the Commission said this on Tuesday at the regional launch of this year's Constitution Week in Ho.

It was on the theme: "Local Participation and Social Auditing for Poverty Reduction".

Mr Zakari said the move was to guarantee the Commission's declaration and affirmation of its commitments to the basic tenets and principles of probity, accountability and transparency for the development of a just and free society. He noted that "executive dominance" and interference at most levels of government was one of the biggest challenges to citizens' participation in local governance.

Mr Zakari said the slow pace of fiscal decentralisation, the lack of transparent local governance and the lack of consistent flow of information between government and the citizenry were other major problems of local governance.

He expressed the hope that with the implementation of the Commission's new focus, citizens would become "social auditors" of their local government functionaries through effective and qualitative participation in decision-making, implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation of procedures.

Mr Elvis Gbesemete, Volta Regional Coordinator of the National Road Safety Commission in a lecture on road safety, said about 80 percent of road accidents were due to human error and urged all to see road safety issues as a shared responsibility.