CHARS-Africa Advocates Strengthening Legislative Framework for Increased Accountability

African Centre For Human Advancement and Resource Support, CHARS-Africa has organized a programme on support to civil society advocacy towards strengthening key legislative frameworks for increased accountability in Abia State.

The programme which is a Rule of Law and Anti-corruption (ROLAC) event and funded by the European Union, was used to educate the Abia citizens about their rights to access Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Public Procurement Act and the Freedom of Information documents, understand the challenges being encountered by civil societies and individuals in accessing or applying the documents as well as proffering solutions and way forward for the Abia society.

Speaking at the event held in Umuahia on Friday, the Executive Director of CHARS-AFRICA, Amaka Biachi urged the Abia State government, led by Governor Alex Otti to key into the transperancy and accountability advocacy by working with civil societies to provide the legislative frameworks that would enable access to important documents smoother for the citizenry.

She said that Abia public are already enjoying ongoing projects by the Governor and would be much interested in having access to information relating to the those projects, explaining that being enlightened about Fiscal Responsibility , Public Procurement and Freedom of Information would help build a better society.

Also speaking, a Lawyer, Ukpai Ukairo who presented a paper during the program lamented the challenges encountered by citizens in obtaining Fiscal Responsibility documents and non domestication of Freedom of Information Law in some States but educated the citizens on their rights to know the day-to-day businesses of the government.

Some other participants at the stakeholders’meeting including Nelson Nnanna Nwafor of FENRAD, regretted that some States are yet to domesticate the Freedom of Information (FO1) Law in their States, adding that even in the States that have domesticated it, people still encounter a lot of difficulties trying to get valuable information.

He called more workshops to be organized for civil society organizations and the Abia public to expose them to the knowledge of their responsibilities and rights, more funding etc.