The Coalition for Democratic Accountability and Inclusive Governance, ‘Citizens’ Coalition’ for short is calling on the government to address corruption and inaction of state institutions.
The newly formed coalition, made up of 32 civil society organisations, said the socio-economic and governance challenges of the country has reached critical dimensions that need immediate action.
At its launch in Accra today, the Citizens Coalition issued a statement on what they described as “our grave concerns about the prevailing socio-economic and governance challenges facing the country.”
According to the coalition, the measures being taken by the government to address the country’s socio-economic challenges so far do not seem to have the potency to bring about the needed results.
“The popular refrain by our political leaders is that the prevailing socio-economic challenges are a global phenomenon occasioned by the combined effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia/Ukraine war.
This rhetoric by our leaders is almost to suggest that until these two separate events have ceased, nothing can be done to mitigate the challenges we face. It’s also an implicit suggestion that Ghanaians should simply live through the crisis with stoic silence.
This posturing of government has created widespread discontent among citizens and a majority of Ghanaians have become desperate,” it said.
The coalition acknowledged that while the country’s economic challenges have clearly been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of the Russia/Ukraine war, they argue that the problems go much deeper than these two factors.
“The underlining causes of these problems relate to the way in which, over the last three decades, successive governments and the bureaucracy have run the country and managed the economy, without any coherent planning.
Our challenges are exacerbated by the indiscipline with which projects are implemented, poorly thought through public investment and a lack of any persistent and deliberate serious attempt at promoting local production capacity and industrialization.
Our public expenditure is characterized by a needless waste of public resources without due regard to fiscal responsibility rules,” the statement said.
Additionally, the Coalition indicated that the political party patronage, plain grand theft and corruption in high places have characterized successive governments.
The coalition thus demanded of the government to exercise his powers under the constitution to issue surcharges and disallowances against persons cited for various financial irregularities in the 2019 and 2020 Auditor-General’s reports.
“The Citizens’ Coalition demands that the Auditor-General directs all defaulting public officers to comply with the Constitutional requirement immediately. We also note that under the Constitution, CHRAJ is also mandated to take appropriate action against defaulting public officials,” he said.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri