Bole, Ghana – Legal Resources Centre (LRC), the implementer of USAID funded Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanism (GSAM) project in the Bole District has organised its fourth year town hall meeting at Bole on the performance of the Bole District Assembly on capital development projects.
The meeting which brought together various stakeholders most especially citizens and beneficiaries of GSAM projects, assessed the performance of the Bole District Assembly on its implementation of capital development projects at Tinga community.
Before deliberations started, District Co-ordinating Director of the Bole District Assembly, Madam Georgina Tumbakorah who represented the District Chief Executive, said that the purpose of the meeting was to assess the impact the construction of the Tinga market has made on the community people.
According to her, the Assembly member for Tinga Electoral Area told the Assembly that the Tinga Community need a market.
The project she said was discussed by the Assembly, approved and awarded on contract for construction.
The Tinga project which is two number 12 units market stalls has since been completed and inaugurated by the DCE for Bole in June, this year.
On the presentation of a score card (assessment) on the Tinga Community market stalls project, citizens scored the Bole District Assembly10% noting that it was wrong for they (citizens) not to be consulted and that if they were consulted they would have come up with other pressing needs such as the construction of a clinic and some facilities at the Tinga Senior High School.
Dramani K. Alhassan who represented the Assembly man to do a presentation, said the Bole District Assembly should henceforth contact the Tinga community whenever it intends to implement any project in the area.
Because the Assembly failed to consult them as a community, they scored it 0% and stressed that next time they want to know the name of the contractor and the contract sum or total cost of construction.
On project site, they scored the Assembly 10% because apart from the Assemblyman and the contractor, they did not know its location, suggested that the District Assembly should always award contracts publicly by involving them to be aware of where they want to site projects.
On monitoring, they also scored the Assembly 30% and suggested that the Aseembly should always involve the community in its monitoring and supervision work.
On whether the community are satisfied with the project as a whole, they scored the Assembly 100%. They however suggested that a barricade should be built at the entrance of the market in order to ensure security of patrons.
On community concerns, a score mark of 60% was awarded to the Assembly because they said feedback on the project was not enough and that the Bole District Assembly should always give a listening ear to their concerns.
The handing over done by the Bole District Assembly was well organised and so the community gave a score of 100% indicating they were also happy about how things were done.
At the end, the Bole District Assembly was scored 72% on its overall performance.
On the way forward, citizens suggested to the Bole District Assembly to level all debris from demolished old structures in the market within three weeks; construct modern urinals and a toilet facility for the Tinga market in three weeks time and that the Assembly should intensify its monitoring and supervision of capital projects and consult with citizens during the initiation of new capital projects.
Meanwhile, the Presiding Member of the Bole District Assembly Mr. Thompson Abu Sumani said the Tinga Senior High School is a politically motivated project and that it is not on any document as property of the Assembly or government and so it will be difficult to put up any project at the school.
He said the District Assembly need to work for the school to be absorbed by the Ghana Education Service
Source: http://savannahnewsonline.com/2018/09/14/tinga-score-bole-district-assembly-75-on-implementation-of-gsam-project/
