26th March 2015 To show their commitment to transparency and engagement with citizens, The Government Assurance Committee of Ghana’s Parliament, has unveiled a new online digital platform project. The App will also amplify their voices on promises made by Ministers in a bid to promote accountability.
According to the committee parliament, the platform has Mobile App, SMS and social media features and was developed with consideration of end users needs. The app is said to represent a vision to ensure that citizens are able to engage with law makers to monitor how government assurances are put in place and to allow the citizenry participate actively in the process of assessing government and holding it more accountable, via an innovative, easy to use, interactive online platform.
The project aims to assist the CGA to undertake its mandate of monitoring all assurances and promises made by the executive arm of government. It is in collaboration with Penplusbytes, and support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.
At a ceremony, in Accra with the theme “Connecting Citizens to Parliament”, Mr. Emmanuel Bedzrah, a member of Parliament for Ho West said the work of the committee in ensuring accountable governance had been further boosted by the inclusion of technology in their activity, and that the committee was the first in Parliament to go digital.the
He said that Citizen Engagement is vital to the survival of democracy in current democratic dispensation, and that any government that wants to survive its mandate must engage those who elected them.
Jerry Sam, Project Director at Penplusbytes said the “connecting citizens to Parliament” project had successfully enabled CGA and key stakeholders to actively keep track of key government promises in the last year.