“Watching the Watchman!” The Watchdog Role of Civil Society Organizations in Ghana’s Public Financial Management.

The social contract theory assumes that people give their authority to the state. This authority empowers the state to collect and manage public finances making the government the ‘watchman’ over public finances. In developing countries like Ghana with few financial resources, the ‘watchman’ is being accused of mismanaging the financial resources in its care. Civil society organizations have surfaced as a move away from the sole reliance on the state watching itself and are noted to be providing a valuable independent view to watching the watchman. The paper seeks to identify the watchdog roles of civil society organizations in Ghana in ensuring an efficient public financial management. The paper employed the qualitative approach to identify the watchdog role of civil society organizations in the public financial management process of Ghana. Ten civil society organizations described as having keen interest and focus on issues relating to public financial accountability were interviewed for the study. The study found that civil society organizations tracked government expenditures using different tracking tools to ensure that monies allocated are used for their intended purposes. Again, the study identified that civil society organizations followed up on the Auditor General’s report and work to ensure that their reports bring changes in the public financial management process. The study also found that civic groups conduct value for money analysis of contracts to ensure that government contracts are not inflated and performed before payments are made. Governments along with its institutions may not be too keen on washing their dirty linen in public. There has therefore been a considerable scope for the integration of civil society organizations watchdog activities into the existing and mandatory framework. This, in the end can effectively contribute to qualitatively improving the public financial management of Ghana.