Kaduna State Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Hajiya Umma Ahmed, has observed that most constituency projects were not serving the needs of benefiting communities.
The commissioner made the observation on Thursday when officials of a Pan-African NGO, Connected Development (CODE), visited her in Kaduna to strengthen collaboration on tracking constituency projects.
Ahmed, who spoke through her Permanent Secretary, Hajiya Habiba Shekarau, said the utmost desired effects were not achieved because most of the projects were designed and implemented without inputs from host communities.
She also noted that most citizens were unaware that constituency projects were funded with public funds to improve the quality of their lives.
She however acknowledged that CODE’s community sensitization and mobilization on tracking constituency projects was changing citizens’ interest in the implementation of the projects.
According to her, continued engagement of the citizens will spur their interest in projects being implemented in their domains and empower them to ask questions.
“This will ensure quality and timely delivery of the project.
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“This, in the long run, will ensure a community-driven approach in the implementation of constituency projects,” she stressed.
Earlier, CODE Team Lead in the State, Mr. Abubakar Mohammed, had explained that his organization was tracking the implementation of constituency projects across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.
Mohammed explained that the projects were being tracked with support from MacArthur Foundation, under a project tagged, “Deepening Citizens’ Interest in Government Spending and Addressing Accompanying Corrupt Practices (DeSPAAC)”.
He said that the purpose of the visit was to strengthen collaboration between the ministry’s officials and CODE’s Community Monitoring Teams and Community Development Charter Champions at the local level.
He also stressed the need for an operational synergy with Chairmen of Local Government Councils in whose domain, constituency projects were being implemented.
According to him, the partnership will improve information sharing and working synergy, with a view to ensuring the delivery of quality projects.
