Government has called upon Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to be vigilant in ensuring that duty bearers are held to account as they execute their duties.

In an interview with the NLGFC Newsletter, focal point person for the Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD), focal person at the Ministry of Local Government, Flemings Nyirenda said CSOs have a huge role to play during the programme’s implementation.

‘GESD is a result-based approach that will incentivize effectiveness and accountability performance of local local authorities’ said Nyirenda.

Nyirenda said the ministry expects CSO’s to take part in holding duty bearers accountable through advocating for transparency in terms of financial reporting and intergovernmental fiscal transfers are indeed being implemented as planned.

"CSOs are expected to engage citizens but also link councils with communities. They are our trusted partners. We believe that by engaging them, communities will have requisite information that will assist them hold duty bearers accountable and in turn get good services," he said.

On his part, National Co-ordinator for Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), Boniface Chibwana said CSOs are ready to complement government’s effort in enhancing service delivery in local authorities.

Chibwana said councils are very instrumental in the country’s development and coming in of CSO’s like CCJP will make sure that the project objectives have been achieved.

"We are there as referees to monitor the implementation progress. CSO’s will see to it that rights holders have a say in issues that are taking place at the council," he said.

GESD is a K78 Billon ($100 million) grant from the World Bank. Its objective is to strengthen local authorities’ institutional performance, citizen engagement, duty bearer responsiveness to citizens and management of resources for service delivery.

The project will run for 5 years with the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and Public Sector Reforms, Ministry of Local Government, National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) and Local Authorities as lead implementing agencies.