The Centre for Public Opinion and Awareness (CenPoA) has commended the government’s newly introduced Performance Tracker, but says the initiative needs “more transparency”.
It said more details must be provided on projects reported on the tracker and the scope must be expanded to include all government projects and “not just those of a particular regime”.
The government on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, launched the performance tracker, which captured various infrastructure projects by the New Patriotic Party administration since 2017, aiming to ensure accountability for projects implemented by the government.
It captured about 13,000 projects, which had been executed by the current administration at various locations across the country.
Mr Michael Donyina Mensah, Executive Director, CenPoA, in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, highlighted lack of information on project timelines, among other concerns as some gaps in the tracker.
He said though the initiative “will improve access to information on government’s physical infrastructural development” in addition to other benefits, it did not include data on project costs and sources of funding.
“The tracker does not provide information on project commencement and completion dates; and whether they are new or inherited projects. Without this information, it will be difficult to measure exclusive efforts and contributions of the current government as the tracker seeks to project.
“The tracker does not include data on project costs and sources of funding as these will help assess the cost-benefits and value for money for the reported projects,” Mr Mensah noted.
It added that some related projects had been “captured separately and could lead to data duplication”.
“A school and its associated toilet facilities built at the same time are reported as two separate projects.
Some privately funded projects found their way onto the list which should include only government initiated and/or sponsored projects,” it observed.
“Despite some of the challenging issues, we believe that the government performance tracker is a bold initiative by the government to ensure accountability and civic engagement.
“To improve transparency and maintain the integrity of the tracker, more details must be provided on projects reported whilst the scope of the tracker must be expanded to include all government projects and not just those of a particular regime,” the statement added.
CenPoA urged the government and the citizens to refrain from politicising the initiative to enable it to achieve its intended purpose.
