An appeal has been made to technocrats operating in the eight CoST operational districts is to embrace participatory monitoring of projects by providing timely information on infrastructure projects to the public. This appeal was made during a training session organized by CoST Sekondi-Takoradi, where new digital tools, namely the Infrastructural Analytical Dashboard (IAD) and the Electronic Infrastructure Monitoring Tool (E-IMT), were launched. The Programme Co-ordinator, Mr. Abdul Aziz Mahmoud, emphasized the importance of technocrats gaining knowledge on these new digital tools, which are add-ons to the disclosure portal that facilitates the publication of project and contract data. He mentioned that while non-governmental organizations often assist districts with such initiatives to promote grassroots participation in governance, these initiatives tend to collapse once they are handed over to the districts. Therefore, he appealed to the officers to ensure the continued use and relevance of the introduced digital tools to promote transparency and accountability.

During the training session, the Project Consultant, Nana Baisie from LoGig Limited, guided participants through the infrastructure analytical dashboard. Participants were divided into groups and given the opportunity to practice using the dashboard to assess their understanding of the digital tool. In an open forum, a Planning Officer raised a question about capturing projects with multiple sources of funding and how to indicate the source of each fund. Mr. Aziz explained that a feature would be integrated into the tools to allow the capture of multiple funding sources assigned to a particular project. Another participant suggested adding phone numbers of key officers to the monitoring tool would enable for prompt communication via text messages, in additionto emails. Mr. Isaac Aidoo, the CoST Sekondi-Takoradi manager, assured the participants that all concerns raised would be addressed. He also encouraged the officers to input their projects into the disclosure portal to enhance the effectiveness of the program.

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