Civil Society Group, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) is accusing John Mahama of running a secret government.

At a workshop in Accra, the group cited a report from its Open Governance Project which reveals many initiatives by government have been shrouded in secrecy.

The Initiative arrived at the conclusion based on three major indicators- transparency, citizen's participation, controlled and oversight roles by government.

Joy News' Beatrice Adu who attended the workshop reported the Open Governance Project Coordinator Linus Atarah as saying the government is largely operating in secrecy.

Mr Atarah cited among other issues an apparent lack of transparency in government activities.

Per the Initiative's open governance project, 15 per cent of what government does is transparent, a percentage the civil society described as poor.

This is so because the bill on Right to Information is yet to be passed into law, making it difficult for the citizens to receive information on important national projects.

On Citizen's participation, the Initiative conceded there is some level of participation especially at the local level but said it was still not satisfied with the level of participation.

The group maintained that even at the local level, only the elite are involved in the governance process, leaving out the masses.

The civil society group found that, even though there are robust laws in the country that would otherwise help the citizenry play it civic responsibility of controling and overseeing some activities by government, in practice very little has been done.

The GII mentioned for instance the Whistle Blowers law which many Ghanaians have failed to take advantage of either because they are afraid there will be reprisals or that they do not even know about the existence of the law.

They also mentioned the procurement law which they claimed lacked publicity during implementation.

"One concern is that, in spite of the publicity given to the procurement process, it is not followed up by similar publicity when the bidding process ends and the winners are selected  so the citizens are left in the dark as to who the winners are and the basis on which they were selected," the group said.