Uromi JDPCI tasks councils on transparency, accountability – Nigerian Observer

UROMI – The Executive Director of Uromi Justice Development Peace and Caritas Initiatives (UROMI-JDPCI), Very Rev. Fr. Dr. Fidelis Arhedo has tasked acting chairmen of local government councils in Edo State to be responsive and accessible to the local people to engender transparency, accountability and participatory democracy.

Very Rev. Fr. Arhedo made the call during a Town Hall meeting/press briefing on Community Mobilisation and Engagement for Good Governance, which held at Uromi, Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State, where all the leaders of five local government Community Civic Groups in Edo Central Senatorial District, complained about their inability to access the budgets of the councils.

The clergyman therefore, called on the Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki to direct the various local government authorities to adopt the process of Citizens’ budget for community participation and involvement in governance.

He also called on the Ministry of Local Government Affairs, being the coordinating ministry to approve and mandate local government councils to make accessible the 2022 approved LGA budget to the community groups as part of their commitment to promoting open government participation.

He explained that the citizens driven project, titled: “Community Mobilisation and Engagement for Transparency, Accountability and Sustainable Governance, was an intervention project of Uromi JDPCI geared towards improving community participation in governance for accountability, transparency and effective service delivering.

As strategy for achieving the goal, he explained that Community Civic Groups were institutionalized by Uromi JDPCI across 25 communities in Edo Central Senatorial District to become agents of citizen-driven transformation.

According to him, members of the 25 community Civic Groups were trained on local government budget tracking and utilization of Open Government Participation (OGP) initiative of Edo State Government signed into law in 2018.

“Over the past decade, uromi JDPCI has been working with communities across Edo Central Senatorial District to strengthen their capacity to demand good governance through training and awareness creation campaigns to enlighten the local populace to meaningfully engage elected officials at the local government level to ensure true democracy and good governance.

“Most recently in October, Uromi JDPCI in partnership with the European Union Agent for Citizen Driven Transparency project started the implementation of an intervention titled, Community Mobilisation and Engagement for Transparency, Accountability and Sustainable Governance in Edo Central Senatorial District with the goal to see improved Community participation in governance for accountability , transparency and effective service delivery”, he explained.

In their various report presentations, leaders of the Community Civic Groups – Mr. Anthony Eigbabemen (Esan Central), Comrade Samuel Osagie (Esan West), Mr. Stanley Eimuen-Oni (Esan North East), Mr. Peter Imhoutu (Esan South East) and Mr. Wisdom Imaralu (Igueben), lamented their inability to access the budget of the councils to enable them perform their task.

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