Ahaji Mohammed Mahama, Deputy Central Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), who made the call said, it was incumbent on the citizenry to contribute to strengthening accountability and transparency by holding duty bearers accountable.

He said transparency, accountability and reliability had become a universally recognised operational principles for good governance in public administration.

Mr Mahama was speaking at a social audit engagement organised by the Cape Coast Metro NCCE as part of efforts to promote good governance in the country.

It was aimed at promoting community ownership of development projects and policies, increase awareness on local governance and empower the citizenry to demand accountability from duty bearers.

The forum, which was held under the theme; "Citizens for transparency and accountability" is being supported by the European Union (EU).

Mr Mahama noted that increased corruption led to low productivity and increased poverty among the citizenry and called on all Ghanaians to holistically deal with the phenomenon by joining the fight against corruption.

He further noted that public access to information was key to greater transparency and accountability, adding for instance that "With open data, education officials and the public can monitor educational progress and identify any bottlenecks and malpractices in the system".

The public sector must provide fair, efficient and essential services that meet citizens' needs to ensure economic growth opportunities, facilitate citizen involvement and participation in public policy development and promote the participation and welfare of all people.

Mr Martin Datsomor of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) stressed that in the absence of accountability, corruption triumphed and called on Ghanaians to be assertive and approach elected officials and head of institutions to demand accountability.

He said nepotism and other negative cultural practices at the workplace must be discouraged because they encouraged corruption and called for collaboration between the general public and authorities at all levels of governance to aid good governance and sustainable economic development.

Mr Philip Yaw Adu, Regional Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), encouraged citizens to report cases of corruptions to their office for swift investigations to be carried out.

He said the law that established the Office mandated it to investigate alleged cases of corruption in both public and private institutions, financial mismanagement, tax evasions, money laundering and serious offences that affected the nation.