From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
A conglomerate of civil society organizations rose from an impact assessment meeting in Kaduna yesterday with a verdict on Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies in the State for consistent failure to comply with freedom of information Acts.
The CSOs at the project’s, tracking meeting included the Local Government Accountability Mechanism (LGAM), Partnership To Learn and Reform (PERL), and EDGAM among others.
Civil Rights advocates after a brainstorming session and progress assessments on budgets, projects, and their execution and implementation to serve the end users, blamed officials and contact persons in contracts awarding desks for not allowing CSOs, the media, and other watchdogs access to vital documents to scrutinize jobs done in communities for quality, service delivery and compliance to project specifications.
PerL facilitator in Kaduna Abel Adejo lamented the poor quality of jobs done on health, education, and road infrastructures in 23 local government areas in the state, blaming the unfortunate development on the indifferent nature of officials in ministries and government agencies.
Adejo, however, expressed optimism in the ability of civil societies in partnership with the press to positively change the narrative for a better and prosperous society where accountability and transparency would count.
He charged the media and civil societies alike to consistently engage the communities to find out the quality of projects done in vital sectors, so they could in turn expose infractions and hold governments responsible.
