(Photo: Cross section of participants at a town hall meeting organised by Connected Development to deepen citizens interest in government spending in Lere LGA)

The Community Monitoring Team (CMT) of a Pan African NGO, Connected Development (CODE), says on Friday that community members are not benefitting from constituency projects due to poor implementation.

Mrs Ladi Bonat, Coordinator of the CMT in Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna State, stated this during a town hall meeting on Friday in Lere.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was on Deepening Citizens Interest in Government Spending and Addressing Accompanied Corrupt Practices (DeSPAAC) project.

The DeSPAAC project was being implemented by CODE with support from MacArthur Foundation to mobilize communities and empower them to provide effective public oversight on government spending.

“Our people have not reaped the full benefits of constituency projects due to poor implementation, abandonment and corrupt practices by officials and contractors executing the projects.

“Such individuals have often gotten away with their actions because citizens, communities and activists have not paid sufficient attention to government spending on project implementation,” she said.

She explained that CODE had established the CMTs, made up of members from different community structures, mobilise citizens, train and empower them to track the implementation of the constituency projects.

She said that the members of Lere communities and other stakeholders have adopted CODE’s Follow the Money strategy to track government spending on various projects in the communities.

“The results have been quite impressive as citizens have been monitoring the implementation of constituency projects, leading to completion of some of the projects while engaging government officials on abandoned ones.

“We are now in the third year of the project, and we are taking steps to sustain the momentum and deepen the outcomes of the implementation of the DeSCAAP project in the LGA,” she added.

Bonat explained that the town hall meeting was organised to review the performance of the project, strengthen engagement with government, and present key findings of monitoring activities in the last two years.

She added that the meeting was also organised to present constituency project nomination monitoring tools for effective monitoring and reporting.

“The goal is to ensure communities take active interest in government spending in critical social sectors of education, health, water, sanitation, and hygiene and use the Follow the Money tools to track implementation of projects.

“We also want to empower our communities with knowledge and skills to be able to engage government officials on how to get their demands across and have their views respected.

“We equally want to strengthen synergy between communities, government officials and anti-corruption agencies.

“There is also the need for the government to respond to community advocacy and take action to positively address situations relating to project selection and implementation,” she said.

The CMT coordinator also stressed the need for citizens to actively participate in budget preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation for quality service delivery.

This, according to her, will ensure that the needs of the people are met, ensure transparency and accountability in the delivery of constituency and other projects implementation.

“We also want to strengthen the commitment of community members, CMTs, Community Development Charter (CDC) Champions, and other stakeholders to sustaining the DeSPAAC project outcomes in our communities.

Earlier, the project assistant, CODE, Zaraphat Haruna, had explained that the organisation was established in 2012 to empower marginalised communities to demand for quality goods and services from the government.

Haruna said CODE was achieving this by creating platforms for dialogue and building citizens’ capacity to hold their government accountable through its “Follow the Money” initiative.

“CODE currently influences dialogue, transparency and accountability in governance in nine African countries,” she said.

The meeting was attended by the CMTs, CDC Champions, government officials, community and religious leaders, women, youth, implementing agencies, and other stakeholders.