News:
January 26, 2020
A member of the Nigerian delegation to the fourth legislature of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Moa A. Ohuabunwa has said their criticism of the maiden edition of the mid-term evaluation should not be misconstrued as fear.
According to Mao, ECOWAS MPs do not fear evaluation and if there is any arm of government that appreciates evaluation it is the legislature as by their constitutional function they evaluate people with their oversight responsibility.
“We oversight government agencies, and in the sub-region evaluation should be the key critical ingredient to assess ourselves. You cannot shave me in my absence, you need my presence to shave me”.
He noted in an interview that mid-term evaluation presented in the Gambia was not properly done in the sense that you cannot evaluate the fourth legislature without talking to any MP.
“The consultant indicated at the initial stage he had challenges, time and financial constraints, we do not throw away the baby with the bath water, rather we should add value and ensure a comprehensive evaluation”.
Senator Mao noted that the evaluation and contributions shared would help strengthen the fifth legislature and would be reference material and would help the next Parliament to hit the ground running.
As to his assessment of the fourth legislature, he noted that there were good programmes but maybe the implementers were not well equipped to finish it.
“You can have a good programme on paper but for it to materialized, it depends on who is running the programme. Also the fourth legislature has given the Parliament more visibility than it used to be, but there is more if those implementing were more prepared”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com