LACSOP tasks LASG over accountability for COVID-19 palliatives

The Lagos Civil Society Participation for Development, LACSOP( formerly Lagos State Civil Society Partnership) has demanded that the Lagos State Government publishes the amount spent on COVID-19 palliatives in the state.

The demand was made during a tweet conversation held on 5, September 2020 which featured the launch of an assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic Palliatives in Lagos State jointly produced by LACSOP, BudgIT Foundation and Socio-Economic Rights and Protection, SERAP with support from Agents for Citizen-driven Transformation (ACT) programme of the British Council.

According to the assessment,It was noted that “the distribution of the COVID-19 Palliatives lacked proper coordination and many things went wrong at various distribution points.” The assessment further  revealed that “Politicians hijacked the packages at the local level; distributions were done outside available data and there were no objective criteria for identifying vulnerable persons.

“It was discovered that quality of food distributed and food portions were small; absence of a collaborative and inclusive coordinating body for the distributions and COVID-19 safety rules were flouted during distributions.

Supporting the demands of LACSOP, twitter users who joined the conversation also demanded that

the Lagos State government need to be accountable and transparent. Some of their comments includes;

“Perhaps one way to ensure proper accounting is to open the Registry to allow @LACSOP have access @followlasg for transparency. “One thinks that some lessons have been learnt on how to harmonise data & use same for effective planning & human development”.

Another follower noted that, “Clarity of expression and documentation is paramount here!”and one stressed that, “Lagosians expect @followlasg to demonstrate accountability.”

Responding to the database used in sharing the palliatives,another commentator on twitter Godstime Ikumapai, Ward Health Committee (WHC) Lagos Alliance Chairman commended the state government but noted that more needed to be done to ensure everyone is carried along. “Great

stride, but the method of getting the main beneficiaries should be looked into and improved upon,” he said.

 Glowing Splints Development Initiative an NGO also noted that , “there’s need to overhaul the school data @followlasg, a lot of the pupil’s addresses were wrong or obsolete “; this created a lot of gaps during the sharing of the palliatives.

LACSOP, BudgIT and SERAP recommended that for better emergency responses, the Lagos State Government need to work in collaboration with key and relevant stakeholders.”The use of verified data, inclusive planning and setting up a robust distribution channel would also help to improve the emergency response system of the Lagos State Government.

“Establish a Lagos Foodbank – and setting up modalities to guide contributors and donors in collaboration with civil society and the organised private sector.

The full report of the assessment can be accessed here:

https://www.lacsop.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Assessing-COVID-19-Pandemic-Palliatives-in-Lagos-State_LACSOP_DK1.pdf