By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
In an effort to hold Government, Contractors and other public service providers accountable for their actions or inactions, an ICT based Civil Society Organization (CSO) Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in collaboration with Open Government Partnership (OGP), a global initiative meant to entrench Governance, have unveiled an ICT platform to enable citizens of Bauchi State report any anomaly they observe in running Government activities in real time.
The internet application site developed developed by CITAD known as officeofthecitizens.com.ng is designed to promote transparency, accountability, and citizens engagement in governance.
Test running the application to Journalists and some CSO groups in Bauchi recently, program officer of CITAD Bauchi, Mujahid Ibrahim said that some of the core features of the application offered to the public include: Real-time budget tracking, Project monitoring and Feedback mechanism from the community to Government.
According to Ibrahim, who also doubles as non state actor co-secretary of Bauchi OGP, such platform could prevent mismanagement of public funds and promotes transparency, and facilitates timely completion of projects, knowing that contractors are being monitored by the public.
The CITAD official then encouraged citizens to avail themselves the opportunity of reporting any misnomer they observe in projects execution and where Government, officials, service providers, or contractors are doing well, credit should be given to them too.
Participants were also taken through hands-on practical of accessing the site and how to upload information on projects monitoring at different levels of execution, or any information that could add value on good governance in Bauchi State.
In their separate remarks, Co-Secretary of OGP from the Government side, Mallam Lawan Bako and, acting co-chairperson CSOs, Hajiya Halima Dimis both acknowledged the giant stride made in developing the “officeofthecitizens.com.ng” site, which they all described as an avenue to further strengthen good governance through the open government partnership initiative.
Dimis particularly called on the media to utilize the site in uploading quality information that could checkmate government excesses and restore public confidence in governance.