Constructive engagement meeting with Nandi County Government OTGs

The constructive engagement meeting brought together NTA, Organized Taxpayers Groups (OTGs) and Officers from the County government of Nandi. The meeting was organized after completion of assessment of 58 development projects across six Sub-counties in Nandi County. The social audit was undertaken between August 2019 to December 2019, and the findings of the assessment were presented during the meeting. The meeting created a platform for the community members to directly engage the duty bearers in regards to implementation of infrastructure projects and delivery of services. The draft citizens report card (CRC) was the main tool used by the OTGs to hold the duty bearers accountable from an evidence point of view.

Out of the 58 projects assessed by the OTGs, 28 projects had issues related to quality of materials used, poor workmanship, value for money and delayed implementation. The main challenge reported by the OTGs during monitoring of the projects was lack of projects information and the governor committed to ensuring that all departments provide all the requisite documents and information to facilitate efficient monitoring of the projects. The economic department also committed to provide financial information of the amounts spent so far, on all development projects.

The overall objective of the activity was to share the social audit findings of the 58 projects cutting across education, health and water sectors. 

The specific objectives of the meeting were:

1. To share and validate the social audit findings from the assessment of development projects.
2. To get the feedback from the OTGs on the state of implementation of the projects they oversee and air their concerns, views and recommendations in regards to development projects and provision service delivery in Nandi County.
3. To discuss and suggest solutions to identified issues during assessment of projects

Achievements

• Improved engagement between the community representatives (OTGs) and the duty bearers (County government officers)
• Improved responsiveness of the County government to resolving some of the issues identified in assessed projects. The fix rate as per time of sharing the findings was at 35.7% (percentage of issues resolved by the County Government of Nandi.)
• Enhanced capacity of the trained OTGs to hold duty bearers accountable. The trained OTGs were able to write 2 memorandums and shared with the County government of Nandi for action. The department of water addressed the issues presented in the memo by summoning the contractor who worked on the project to work on the identified issues by the community.