The Government Assurances Committee has adopted social media as a means of holding politicians responsible and accountable.
The platform created and managed by the International Institute of ICT Penplusbytes will track all Ministers of State who make promises during their visit to chiefs, rural folks, during vetting of Ministers and on the floor of Parliament.
Using Short Message Service code 9030 on all networks, Whatsapp numbers and Facebook accounts, citizens are to report all Ministers who make promises and on which platform the promises were made.
Jerry Sam, the project director for Penplusbytes explained “citizens will send the recorded voices to the platform built for the assurances committee on www.assurances.gov.gh, we will compile all the assurances citizens pick from the rally ground, official occasions etc and give it to the assurance committee, they will be working with their research team and support staff to determine which of the assurances is worth pursuing.”
A ranking member on the committee, Member of Parliament for Kwesimintim, Joe Baidoe Ansah was optimistic that the move by the Government Assurances Committee will bring back the confidence of citizens in government.
“If you are making a promise as a Minister, then we have to make you responsible and ensure that you deliver. If a Minister makes a promise or an undertaking, we notify the minister of it and we pursue the minister, that is to say we will want to know how far he is gone with it, if he is not able to do it, why has he not been able to do it,” he said.
Mr. Baidoe Ansah stated that “Ghana is going to see more responsible ministers, making responsible utterances with responsible activities.”
According to him, “people are becoming disinterested in politics, think politicians are liars, and don’t deliver on their promise. So this role is going to make sure that we take the wrong nuts from the best.”
By: Afiba Anyanzua Anyanzua/citifmonline.com/Ghana