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Empowering community members to demand transparency, accountability and justice in the implementation of community projects is critical in local governance.

Mr Johnson Opoku, the National Director of Programmes at the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), who stated this said the ability of citizens to conduct social auditing on development projects in their communities was crucial to ensure acceptability and ownership.

Mr Opoku was speaking at a community forum on social auditing organized by the NCCE for the people of Borfuorakura, in the Sekyere Afram Plains District.

The programme was part of the second phase of the Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme (ARAP) being implemented by the NCCE in 260 districts across the country with funding from the European Union (EU).

The ARAP is a joint anti-corruption initiative between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and the EU to promote good governance, advocate and lobby for increased accountability.

Mr Opoku said the social auditing concept would increase the awareness of the community members of the operations of the local government system, and to empower them to demand accountability from duty bearers.

“Social Auditing is not an event but rather a process towards achieving results such as producing community ownership of projects as well as deepening effective and efficient delivery of social services to communities.

It is done through promoting discourse among citizens and office or duty bearers on planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects and programmes,” Mr Opoku said.

Besides, he said social auditing would help to promote good governance by reducing corruption and improving accountability and compliance with the rule of law.

Mr Arthur Wilson, the Ashanti Regional Director of NCCE, said education, health, agriculture, roads and infrastructure, social services, and energy are issues of concern to the local citizenry.

He said when well audited by the community members, could lead to the attainment of the SDGs goals 1, 2, 3, which emphasizes poverty reduction, zero hunger, good health, well-being and quality education.

Mr Francis Oppong, the District Director of the Sekyere Afram Plains, urged the community members to prioritize their needs through action plans.