By Sani Idris
Community Monitoring Teams (CMTs), has lauded a Non-governmental Organisation, Connected Development (CODE) for enhancing their capacity and training them on tracking and monitoring constituency projects funding for social accountability.
The CMTs who cut across various LGAs in Kaduna, said the training would enhance their quest for demanding accountability from their legislators to properly enjoy dividends of democracy across their various communities.
The CMTs also said that the one one-day training organised for them by CODE would equip them with the knowledge and ways of tracking funds meant for their various communities and constituency projects.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) the training is also under the CODE’s project, ‘Deepening Citizens’ Interest in Government Spending and Addressing Accompanying Corrupt Practices (DeSPAAC)’, in Kaduna State, which is supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
Speaking earlier, CODE’s Project Manager in Kaduna, Kingsley Agu, said the training was aimed at enhancing interest of citizens in the decision-making processes of the government and their expenditures especially in the implementation of constituency projects with focus on the 2021/2022 Zonal Intervention Projects in Kaduna State.
He added that the idea was to equip the CMTs with the needed skills and information to effectively track the projects at their levels by utilising the Freedom of f Information Act (FOIA) in requesting information from their legislators and contractors by following it up with tracking.
Agu noted that most of the constituency projects were planned and sited without input of the community members leading to duplication wastage, and abandonment due to lack of tracking and monitoring.
He urged the CMTs to ensure taking ownership of projects in their communities for their own benefits and gains of democratic dividends.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the CMTs were also trained on policy advocacy and strategic communication, and how to engage, hold townhall meetings and taking up key outcomes of the meetings.
NAN also reports that the CMTs were taught report writing and impact reporting, among others.
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