‘Hold leaders accountable’
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The SAU will deal with processes through which citizens can demand accountability from their representatives and public servants at the MMDAs.
It also allows civil society and ordinary citizens to participate in governance processes, whilst demanding accountability.
About 60 participants from different media firms in the Ashanti Region attended the seminar which was held in Kumasi.
Speaking at the seminar, the Deputy Director at the Ministry of Local Government, who is also a member of the SAU, Madam Fati Lily Soale, outlined some benefits of the SAU.
The SAU, she said, sought to strengthen the informal relationship between the government and the citizens, adding that it would help improve the delivery of development initiatives.
Again, the SAU, she indicated, would enhance transparency, as well as empower the poor and offer the platform for journalists to hold public workers accountable.
She stated that the ministry, by the creation of the SAU, was to promote and strengthen fiscal decentralisation, as well as local government accountability mechanisms to ensure that the MMDAs are held accountability by citizens and national government.
That, she added, would generate civil society demands for financial information from MMDAs and also promote more effective engagement of civil society with MMDAs.
She advised media practitioners to use the opportunity created by the SAU not only to expose metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs), but endeavour to work hand-in-hand with the MMDCEs.
Story: Joseph Kyei-Boateng & Angelina Opuni-Mensah