James Ojo, Abuja
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has made a shocking revelation in the 2019 budget of the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice.
Chairman of the commission, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, said the sum of N5.6 billion was inserted as constituency projects in the two ministries. He stated that a breakdown of the 2019 allocation for zonal interventional projects showed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) would spend N2.9 billion on constituency projects. Owasanoye added that the allocation of N2.7 billion to the Ministry of Justice in the same budget brings to the fore, some of the anomalies surrounding the implementation of constituency projects across the country.
Constituency projects he explained where principally projects and empowerment programmes designed to bring development to rural communities within the country, but which had been included in the budgets of MFA and other non-relevant ministries and agencies.
“What is constituency project doing in Foreign Affairs? We will ask questions with this kind of allocation.”
The ICPC boss further revealed that only about 60 percent of constituency projects have been completed with a lot of them executed in shoddy ways due to poor technical designs, impositions and other sundry irregularities.
He stressed that the Commission would not give up on tracking of constituency projects as long as government kept funding them and therefore called on local communities to own the projects for themselves.