By County Diary Correspondent

Social accountability definitions and concepts in auditing explained

The FORD Foundation, The Council of Governor’s and Kitui County government are working on capacity building framework aimed at training the locals and administrators on the existing legal and policy framework for inclusion of women and youth on Social Auditing, COUNTY DIARY has learnt.

The workshop brings on board all county ward administrators, village admins drawn from all 19 Wards, county top officials, FORD Foundation representatives, the National Taxpayer Association, Council of Governor’s representatives who are facilitating the ongoing trainings.

The programs began in Kitui and is being piloted in all the women-led counties in Kenya.

Social Audit

The Social audit is a process and not an event; the trainees must be actively involved in identifying the community monitors, the selection of community must be open and transparent to all for effective results.

Speaking to the preliminary Mr. Stephen Osendo from National Taxpayers Association (NTA) is urging the participants to be more proactive to all the government programs.

The NTA is a civil association majoring on the plight of ‘Musangi’ across the country.

The responsibility of the National Taxpayer Association (NTA) is to hold the leaders accountable and make sure that public resources are well utilized whilst ensuring that social accountability and social responsibility for the participants is factored.

Mr. Osedo has also urged participants to actively participate in all county programs from the conceptional stage to the actualization stages.

Key results for effective social Auditing

• Collecting feedback from Community for every project
• Fact-finding a mission and follow up model
• Honesty and accountability in every project
• Don’t do it for political purposes, be open and be careful not to manipulate the reports
• Opens, confidentiality and transparency are key for effective accountability for effective social auditor.
• Social accountability audit is very key for effective process in every program.
• Contact stakeholders for a fair analysis
• Establish a baseline
• Have variable finding for every project

Have a strong follow-up measure for effective social auditing.

The principal of social Audit process

Honesty – to all players

Objectivity – in your findings

Be Careful in analyzing the data to avoid making errors that can lead to uproar, Openness and confidentiality of the document provided.