By Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, the running mate to the National Democratic Congress’ presidential candidate for the 2024 election, John Mahama, has criticized successive governments for delegating their responsibilities to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and other donor organizations.
The former Education Minister emphasized that governments cannot solely rely on philanthropists to fulfill their duties.
Her remarks come in the wake of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) collaborating with Democracy International (DI) to implement a Performance Accountability Activity (PAA) in 70 districts across 10 regions of Ghana.
The primary objective of the project is to assist the government in delivering high-quality local government services and enhancing public sector accountability. Additionally, it aims to bolster civil society oversight and feedback mechanisms concerning government performance in the public service.
However, while addressing representatives from various CSOs at an event organized by Star Ghana Foundation focusing on the utilization of philanthropy for sustainable development, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman urged the government to prioritize its responsibilities.
“The government should be at the centre of it and have a long-term plan. We need a long term-plan in this country.
“Even the recent population census that we had, the head is a former colleague of mine and I said to him, ‘listen, we spent all this money but you could have created a few more categories to get more data,” she said.
Former Youth and Sports Minister, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, voiced criticism against certain Civil Society Organizations for their perceived silence regarding corruption and governance issues under President Akufo-Addo’s administration.
“If the focus is on Ghana and looking at what is in the best interest of Ghana and we see that the situation is even worse than before and all the indicators from Corruption Watch and the rest show that this is the worse situation than before, then we expect to see a higher level or higher intensity of advocacy.”
