Participants in an advocacy and dissemination engagement have called for the active involvement of beneficiary communities and assemblies in the Big Push Agenda and other infrastructural projects to ensure their timely and up-to-standard completion.
They said the lack of stakeholder consultation often resulted not only in shoddy work but also the abandonment of such projects.
The forum, organised by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) in Ho last Wednesday, was on the theme: ‘From Disclosure to Impact – Mobilising Local Civil Society to Verify Published Extractives Data and Advocate for Equitable, Accountable Spending of Funds.’
It was based on key qualitative and quantitative research findings from some projects carried out in the Volta Region between June 2022 and August 2023, and March 2024 and March 2025.
Participants
Among the 25 participants were local government experts, traditional rulers, civil society representatives, municipal and district assembly members, representatives of Local Authority Network (LANets), persons with disability (PWDs), representatives of churches, and transport unions.
They also included officials from the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC), representatives of project beneficiary communities, and others.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of GACC, Solomon Yankah, in a presentation, cited the reshaping of the Ave Afiadenyigba-Gboxome-Xorve roads, which he said were completed with no stakeholder involvement.
Apart from that, Mr Yankah said there were no signposts at the project sites and that made the tracing of the contractor difficult.
Significant improvement
Mr Yankah said although beneficiaries of the project reported significant improvement in the road network, which had eased difficulty in transportation, it was not disability friendly.
He also mentioned the Ave-Dakpa Central Market in the Akatsi North District, which was completed with visible defects, with no stakeholder involvement in the design, inaccessible to PWDs, and undone washrooms.
In the Ho municipality, Mr Yankah said the Klefe Demete Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds project site also had no signboard at the site.
“The absence of signboards at several project sites hindered data collection and made it difficult to track project details, contractors, and timelines,” he added.
In the case of the Ho Tarso Concrete Drains Construction, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of GACC said the project was marked as completed, but the Ho Municipal Coordinating Director insisted the project had not been handed over, “meaning the project is not officially completed.”
The lack of accessibility to homes in the area was also a cause for concern to the project beneficiaries, he revealed.
Meanwhile, out of 15 projects in the Akatsi North District in the past two years, only four were completed, Mr Yankah revealed.
The Ho Lead of the LANets Team, Suzzy Sogbaka, said the effective implementation of the Big Push Agenda required strong institutional coordination, transparency, disclosure, as well as local ownership and supervision.
“Citizens’ monitoring provides early warning signals to prevent waste, abandonment, and poor-quality infrastructure,” she explained.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh