Regional Townhall Meetings: Gov’t to showcase infrastructural projects from July

The Ministry of Information will begin regional townhall meetings and exhibitions, starting from the end of this month.It forms part of an effort to decentralise government's communication and inform the citizenry about the infrastructural projects and policies the ruling government has implemented over the past seven years.The event would bring onboard regional and sector ministers and key government appointees to answer questions from journalists and members of the public on government projects.The Minister of Information, Madam Fatimatu Abubakar, announced this during an interview with journalists in Accra.The townhall meetings and exhibitions would showcase roads, health, education, water, and sanitation infrastructure, as well as any other issue bothering the Region, the Minister said.She said the event would enable the government to showcase in videos and pictures key projects it had implemented so far to promote transparency and accountability and take feedback to the presidency.The Ministe r said although the Government had already unveiled the Government of Ghana Performance Tracker with GPS locations, but it was necessary to get to the grassroots to listen to their concerns and thoughts on those projects.The feedback from the townhall meetings would be communicated to the duty-bearers and the presidency to address any challenge identified, the Minister stated.Meanwhile, Madam Abubakar refuted claims from former President John Dramani Mahama that government owed Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to the tune of two billion dollars.She stated that reliable statistics from the IPPs revealed that the government owed them one billion dollars for power supply.She said the government had reached an agreement with five out of the seven IPPs to restructure the debts owed them to ensure regular power supply.The Government, she said, had also agreed with five of the IPPs to restructure the Power Purchase Agreements and that it was working tirelessly to address the shortfalls in power supply.'The government is making frantic efforts to provide adequate funding for the energy sector to ensure regular power supply…so that VRA, ECG and GRIDCo will get enough power for transmission.Source: Ghana News Agency