GOVERNING COUNCIL EVALUATES APRM PROGRAMME (PAGE 31, OCT 20)

THE National African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Governing Council has begun a nationwide exercise to monitor and evaluate the APRM programme.
In puruance of this, 20 districts, including Wa West and Jirapa in the Upper West Region, have been selected for the exercise.
The Executive Secretary of the Governing Council, Dr Francis Appiah, explained that the districts were selected as a result of the dynamism and commitment to the peer review mechanism.
He said the introduction of the APRM into the decentralisation process was very unique as it was owned by the people.
He was speaking at a validation workshop for Wa West Oversight Committee of the APRM at Wechiau, the district capital.
He said the APRM had come to the conclusion that for any country to develop, four thematic areas, including good governance, good economic policies, conducive environment for business and good standard of living such as electricity, education, health, among others, must be pursued.
He said come December this year, a national validation workshop would be held in Accra to put all the report collated from the 20 selected district together and presented to the President in January.
Dr Appiah was happy that the report of the oversight committee was non-partisan,and thus commended the committee for a good job done.
The District Chief Executive (DCE),Mr Seidu Tungbani, noted that the establishment of the District Oversight Committee would have significant impact on the decentralisation process.
He said the district was a peaceful one, without any traits of insecurity.
Presenting the report, the acting Secretary of the committee, Mr Crispin Yango, said during the collectin of data, it was revealed that the police, district assembly revenue collectors, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Education Service were the most corrupt institutions, while the least corrupt ones were Information Services Department, Department of Social Welfare, Birth and Death Registry, among others.
He said respondents to a questionnaire on the ability to vote in national elections still believed that threats and intimidation by some politicians contributed significantly to low turnouts during elections.
The respondents, he said, suggested that the village development committees should replace the unit committees, because many of the unit committees were not fully composed as people were no longer putting themselves up for elections because of the voluntary nature of the work.