Center for Advocacy, Transparency and Accountability Initiative(CATAI) Flags Off Project on Health Sector in Borno
Center for Advocacy, Transparency and Accountability Initiative (CATAI), a non- governmental organization has flagged off a project in " Enhancing Transparency and Reducing Corruption in Borno State Health Sector and Other Sectors Wednesday in Maiduguri.
The Chief Executive of CATAI, Borno State, Malam Abubakar Sadiq Muazu at a press briefing with journalists in his office at the Golden Plaza Complex, Old Jos Road, Maiduguri said," the aim of project is to focus on complementing the effoorts of the Government in implementing capital projects."
"It is also to ensure government is held responsible and accountable to its citizens as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The project will be carried out through civil advocacy and citizen driven campaigns towards enhancing service delivery", Muazu said.
He added that the project was expected to enhance basic service delivery through engagement of citizens in annual budget processes and implementation, assist the government to tackle issues of corruption or corrupt practices and promote transparency or social audit in public funds management and projects execution.
According to him, the CATAI acivities will strengthen good governance and bring about transparency in the conduct of affairs through amplification of community participation and people's voices, using ICT tools to monitor and track down government projects execution of health projects in Borno State.
Muazu maintained that CATAI will also.mitigate misappropriation of funds released from the budgets for health projects towards improving public funds accountability in government MDAs and information flow in selected locations or community outreach as well as weekly radio programs to sensitize the citizens on how to air their views.
The Chief Executive explained that the citizen driven tracking campaign was to identify areas of engagement and implementation for judicious utilization of public funds budgeted and released for sake of people and teaching zero tolerance, against corruption improved health facilities, service delivery and feedback from government projects in complementing governments efforts to minimize projects costs.
He said: " CATAI will also work with collaborating bodies like EFCC, ICPC, NBA, Property Procurements , Monitoring and Evaluation establishments, CSOs and others to follow the money on public projects to enhance service delivery and empower citizens of the state".