Only Seventeen (17) out 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA) can be classified as “extremely transparent and accountable” under FOSDA’s maiden edition of the ONLINE Transparency and Accountability Index (A Case of Online Presence part-1).
This is followed by 120 (46%) MMDAs who can be classified as “very transparent and accountable”; 23 (9%) MMDAs “somewhat transparent and accountable; 19 (7%) MMDAs “not so transparent and accountable”; 18 (7%) MMDAs “not at all transparent and accountable”; 64 (24%) i.e., about 1 in every 4) MMDAs could not make the scores.
Out of the total 197 MMDAs that have websites, only 23 representing 12% uploaded their 2021 progress reports.
The unavailability of MMDAs 2021 progress report in particular makes it difficult for citizens and public interest groups to understand the continuum in transparency and accountability between the year 2022 and previous year 2021. This adds to the challenging in the quest to ask duty bearers critical questions and demand accountability in service delivery at the local level.
The index uses 5 online indicators each with a score of 1 to develop a total raw score for classifying MMDAs on various levels of transparency and accountability. The indicators used include availability of MMDAs official functioning Website; availability of 2022 Composite Budget on MMDAs Website; availability of 2022 Annual Action Plan on MMDAs Website; availability of 2021 Progress Report on MMDAs Website and availability of other related document to ensure a continuum on transparency and accountability on MMDAs Website
The result showed that only 2 regions Western and Greater Accra Regions can be classified as “very transparent and accountable” with an average index score of “4”.
Five (5) regions including Ashanti, Ahafo, Central, Western North and Bono East scored “3” (i.e., “Somewhat transparent and accountable”).
Eight (8) Upper East, Upper West, Savannah, Northern, Bono, Oti, Eastern and Volta regions scored “2” which is “Not so transparent and accountable”.
The North East Region’s average score was 1 which is “Not at all Transparent and Accountable”.
The score showed that none of the 16 regions achieved the highest score of 5 which is “Extremely transparent and accountable”.