Audit Service, Ghana, (GAS) has launched the Citizeneye Mobile Application to access risk information from the public to enable the Service to plan ahead.
The Citizeneye Application was initiated by GAS in collaboration with giz and AFROSAI-E to give the opportunity to the public to speak out and freely give information on every area of the economy, including corruption without fear of vitimisation.
Citizeneye Application could be downloaded from the google play store or from GAS website by clicking on the Application link.
Mrs Roberta Asiamah-Appiah, a Deputy Auditor General in charge of Finance and Administration, said the Citizeneye Application was as a result of the Service quest to promote greater accountability and transparency in the public service.
She said the Service in recent times had been exploring numerous ways of involving stakeholders in its activities with the aim of serving the people of Ghana better.
She noted that the application was envisaged to form an alliance among all stakeholders and offer citizens a special opportunity, to provide information and services to issues pertaining to the public services.
"The views and concerns expressed by stakeholders would help shape audit risk assessment procedures and improve audit quality. This is in line with our legal mandate as provided by regulation 51 of the Audit Service regulation 2011," she added.
Mrs Asiamah-Appiah said the Citizeneye Application would assist people who hitherto have very useful information on the abuse of public resources but lacked the courage to do so.
The Deputy Auditor General emphasised that the launching of the mobile application, was the commencement to improving their relationship with stakeholders towards trust building, respect and tolerance.
She said many people have valid information but there was no channel available for them to deliver and expressed the hope that the Mobile Application would address that challenge and thereby strengthen the Service to advise the government in its report on how to address the problems.
Mr Tassilo Von Droste, Deputy Programme Director, Good Financial Governance in Africa Programme at giz, stressed the need to ensure that the taxes that citizens paid were used for the good of the people.
He said many citizens were withholding information because they had lost trust in public office holders and expressed the hope that the citizeneye would awaken the spirit of patriotism among the people to freely complain about development issues within their catchment areas.
He said aside given the citizen the platform to lodge their complaints; the information would also strengthen the Auditor-General' Report and give government an in-depth idea on what was going on.
"Having sufficient information will enable the Service make major chain of accountability in government stronger and the Citizeneye Application is the central tool to help achieve that," he added.
Mrs Linda Ofori Kwafo, Executive Director of Ghana Integrity Initiative, said the inception of the Citizeneye Application was to ensure that social challenges were addressed efficiently and effectively as well as the delivery of quality services to citizens.
She said the Citizen Mobile Application was a means through which people could deliver information towards shaping the planning and execution of the Audit Service.
She explained that the Service had noticed that people generally encountered difficulties in providing the requisite information to public institutions to take the necessary measures.
She said the difficulties included proximity to the point of delivery and fear of exposure of the informant and expressed the satisfaction that the Application has come at the opportune time and called on all Ghanaians to support it.
Mrs Ofori-Kwafo noted that collaboration between the Service and citizens could not be overemphasized, as it would limit bribery and corruption in society.
She said an effective audit service would ensure accountability and transparency on the use of public resources and funds in the public sector.
The Citizeneye Mobile Application currently does not include the six new regions but will be updated in due course to include them.