Wote: The Directorate of the National Anti-corruption Campaign Steering Committee (NACCSC) is conducting training for three County Anti-corruption Civilian Oversight Committees (CACCOC) on social audits for community projects, in a bid to enhance accountability and transparency and curb corruption. Among the committees benefiting from this training are participants from Machakos, Kitui, and Makueni Counties, who are being instructed on how to undertake audits on community projects within their jurisdictions.
According to Kenya News Agency, the training was conducted by the Lower Eastern Regional Anti-corruption Officer, Sophi Ligondo, who inducted the invited participants at a hotel in Wote town during a five-day Capacity Building and Training Workshop. Ligondo emphasized that the CACCOCs will disseminate the knowledge and create awareness among the public in their areas to enable citizens to understand the process of implementing projects. She stated that this training would empower the CACCOCs to carry out social audits on government projects implemented by various government agencies in their regions.
NACCSC has established 47 CACCOCs across the country. These networks are crucial structures that will undertake nationwide public education sensitization and awareness creation to curb corruption. The training aims to empower social audits, which are citizen-driven tools used to engage citizens, community members, and civil society organizations in collecting and publicly sharing information on resources allocated for service delivery and public works. The training also covers steps taken to ensure that public projects actually benefit the intended recipients and that funds are spent prudently.
Ligondo further mentioned that the Committees will undergo two additional training sessions before they audit community projects, including Wote Reticulation at Kamunyoro Dam, the County Police Commander Office constructed by the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF), and the Kalamba Fruit Plant. Makueni County Commissioner Khalif Abdullahi highlighted that the workshop is crucial in enhancing knowledge and skills required to conduct social audits. Abdullahi stated that the workshop would enable participants to conduct public awareness of government projects in their localities.
Present at the event were the Acting Director NACCSC Tryphosa Achar, the County Security team, among others.
