It was organized under the theme “Improving citizens’ participation in local governance”.

The programme was jointly put together by the district assembly and the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

This provided the opportunity for the people to articulate their development concerns – bad nature of roads, poor sanitation, limited health facilities, inadequate classroom space, teaching and learning materials.

Mr. Ebenezer Douglas Ntiamoah, the Development Planning Officer, announced that out of the total amount of GH?3,622,245.00 the assembly had been expecting as its share of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF), it had received about GH?1,000,000.00.

He indicated that the late release of the common fund was making it difficult to meet projects’ implementation deadlines.The situation, he added, was also not being helped by the low mobilization of internally generated revenue.

Mr. Ntiamoah said the assembly could not continue to overly depend on the common fund for the construction of every single development project and would have to explore other revenue streams.

It was important they all accepted to voluntarily pay their rates and levies to the assembly to strengthen its finances and the capacity to bring progress to the communities.  Ms. Faustina Djabatey of the GACC urged the people to actively participate in the activities of the assembly to decide their own destiny.

She said this was the way to go to ensure that there was financial transparency and accountability by the assembly. Mr. Emmanuel Kojo Antwi, the District Director of National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), called for all to join the anti-corruption campaign by being bold to report any corrupt practices.

Everybody, he said, should find space to contribute to the fight against corruption, to make sure that the nation’s resources benefited all.