Monitoring
By Mohammed Lawal
Zaria (Kaduna State), Aug. 3, 2018 (NAN) An NGO, Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training (CEDDERT) on Friday begun a two-day training workshop for Community Based Organisations on tracking government projects to ensure quality and standard.
The workshop, funded by MacArthur Foundation, were drawn from School Board Management Committees (SBMC) in Sabongari, Giwa and Kagarko Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training, held at the Ahmadu Bello University Business School, Samaru, Zaria, was essentially on monitoring UBEC/SUBEB projects.
Presenting a paper entitled: “Monitoring Instrument” at the opening of the workshop, a Consulting Quantity Surveyor, Alhaji Abdullahi Mohammed said it was essential for benefiting communities to be involved in monitoring projects as that would make them to safeguard the facilities.
He said that communities must not only protect and safeguard projects executed in their domains, but also monitor the execution of projects right from excavation to final work.
Mohammed told the participants to insist on the use of standard building materials by contractors, to ensure that the project executed remain of benefit to them for a long time.
In his speech, one of the CEDDERT research fellows and team-leader of the project, Prof. Muhammad Mustapha-Gwadabe said the workshop was to raise the consciousness level of the communities.
“The workshop is essentially organised to raise the level of consciousness of our communities to understand the relevance of government and government projects, indeed to own the projects.
“It is also meant to position them to respect government projects, to supervise government projects and to report government projects where possible.
“Government projects are meant for the people and people should now stand-up to look after them, they should ensure that whatever government put in their own community is of quality.
“Such projects must be executed in good time and not in a corrupt manner as obtained in most part of Nigeria,” he advised.
Mustapha-Gwadabe said CEDDERT as an NGO, was concerned with challenges facing local communities and was trying fill the existing gap between the people and the government.
“We have projects that are there to be for the people but these projects are just suggested by the government without the consent of the people.
“We want to get people understand that they can approach the government and tell them that look, this is what we want and not that and also for them to report back if contractors are not doing what they are supposed to do.
“People must understand that they also have a stake in what the contractor is doing, to be able to look at the contractor and tell him boldly that, make sure you do what you are sent here to do,” he said.
In her paper entitled: “How the System Works”, one of the facilitators and educationist, Madam Ester Jipjip said the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme was designed to eradicate illiteracy, ignorance and poverty.
She said it was also to stimulate and accelerate national development, political consciousness and national integration.
Jipjip observed that not all communities knew that they have the right to write and request for a particular project in a particular school.
“Sometimes the projects that come to us are not our priority needs. A school may be in serious need of classrooms but government may decide to supply chairs or build toilets.”
The facilitator advised the communities to establish good working relationship with contractors to pave way for execution of better projects that would stand the test of time.
She identified impact of community monitoring to include; increase quality control, encouraging transparency and accountability, enhancing sense of responsibility in community members, and encouraging collaboration and teamwork.
Jipjip said the expected outcomes of the training was to reduce corruption and promote accountability and ensure that communities have standard schools and well-trained pupils who would compete for places in secondary and tertiary institutions. (NAN)
KLM/MZA
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Maharazu Ahmed