The Public Participation In Decision Making Of Public Sector In The Sunyani Municipality Of Ghana:Perception Of Electronic Particpation

Ghana has been noted as the cradle of Africa's democracy,its decentralization policy was in 1988,the core aim objective of this policy was to enhance a representative,deliberative and participatory democracy,thereby changing the system of government from centralized to a decentralized approach where the local people were at the center of developmental affairs,but in practical terms there seem to be a loophole in the core objective of decentralization,since citizen participation in development planning has not taken the center stage as planned.The aim of the study was to seek out the existing mechanisms for public participation and how these mechanisms have increased participation,some constraints or challenges to participation were also identified,so were the benefits of participation,the research was also to understand how key actors perceive(online)e-participation as a mechanism for greater public participation.The study employed a case study approach focusing on Sunyani West Local Assembly to enable a vivid understating of how public participation in decision-making process is practiced in the local assembly.The study found out that public hearing,elections and mass media is the most common platform for participation but indicated these platforms do not allow for total participation in decision-making in the various communities.It was discovered that mostly participation is done passively in the Sunyani local Assembly,thereby resulting in some communities having abandoned projects and various protest against undertaking of some projects.Primary,most citizens being the youth have the zeal to participation but majority are of the view that the platforms for participation in a technological world make it much difficult,thereby advocated for e-participation.It highlights that a number of the citizens uses smart devices such as mobile phones,ipads,laptops etc and have access to higher level of internet usage which gives the adoption of(online)e-participation as a mechanism for greater citizen participation in decision making in the Sunyani west local Assembly much easier,this is practiced by some developed countries would give easy access to the citizens on policy decision making and implementation thereby making the government,responsive,accountable,transparent,less corrupt etc.and citizens ability to access some public services through the use of Information Communication Technology tools.Although some concerns were raised with its implementation and sustainability,such as lack of infrastructure,the technical know-how,technological gap,resource persons were the major concerns raised.It was suggesting that the local government adopt the use of E-participation on pilot basis and subsequently roll it out throughout the rest of the communities.The questionnaire was basically used to obtain responses from respondent and also adopted both convenience and purposive sampling methods in the study.Furthermore,it is recommended among others the local government should not politicize developmental and decision making issues,thus the community should follow the laid down development plan irrespective of the government in power again the DCPU should be financially stable to fund needed projects already initiated.In other to ensure total participation in the Sunyani West Local Assembly these is deemed essential.