By Mohammed Mamman
Damaturu – A Non-Governmental Organization, ‘Connected Development’ (CODE) on Tuesday engaged community volunteers from five local government areas in Yobe, to track government expenditures on projects executed in their communities.
Mr Busayo Morakinyo, Community Engagement
Manager of the organization, said the exercise was aimed at empowering the communities at the grassroots to track spending on projects to enhance accountability and get value for money.
He said the citizens had the right to know details of projects executed in their communities, the contractors and financial implications, to help them hold the government responsible and accountable on the quality of the projects.
“This is to make sure communities are carried along in the process of every project and to track government expenses for more sustainability and accountability.”
“The participants, who were drawn from Damaturu, Tarmuwa, Fune, Gujba and Gulani Local Government Areas, have also been sensitized on information gathering as a vital tool in the tracking process,” he said.
According to him, there are about nine steps in tracking government funds, which includes the identity and address of the contractors, project details, specifications and completion period, among others.
Alhaji Muazu Modu, State Leader of CODE, said the programme , tagged “follow the money” was designed to build community ownership of government projects in their localities.
“The idea is to ensure that there is value for money in every project executed by government in the respective communities” he said.(NAN)