Members of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Northern Ghana have presented a petition to the Auditor-General, urging an audit of all One Village One Dam (1V1D) projects in the region.
Executive Director of the Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA), Bismark Adongo Ayorogo conveyed the petition on behalf of the CSOs and the beneficiary communities.
The petition, copied to the Ghana News Agency, seeks to promote transparency and accountability in the management of public resources and to ensure value for money in these projects.
“We are invoking your constitutional mandate of auditing all public accounts to conduct an audit on all the 1V1D projects in Northern Ghana.”
The petition highlights a policy statement from the 2018 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government, which promised increased audit coverage on new policies like the 1V1D initiative to ascertain value for money.
“However, we have since not sighted any audit report from your Service on these 1V1D projects.”
The 1V1D projects, funded by Ghana’s oil revenue through the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), aims to promote double cropping annually, boost agricultural productivity, enhance food security, and reduce the food import bill, as outlined in the 2017 and 2018 Budget statements.
The petitioners emphasized the importance of an audit to uphold good governance, transparency, accountability, and probity in Ghana’s public financial management.