President Muhammadu Buhari last week decried the shoddy execution of constituency projects, which had gulped a whopping N1trillion in the last 10 years. According to President Buhari, Nigerians, especially those at the grassroots, have not felt the impact of the N1trilion appropriated for constituency projects.  

President Buhari’s bombshell came at a two-day National Summit on “Diminishing Corruption in Public Sector,” organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related offences Commission (ICPC), and  the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) in Abuja. The president also directed the ICPC to go after the contractors and government officials who collected funds for constituency projects without executing them

The President’s directive came following the ICPC’s report on the first phase of constituency projects tracking initiative which was submitted by the Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye. The agency had early this year undertook an investigation into fraudulent practices in the award of constituency projects contracts in 12 states across the six geo-political zones of the country. One of the objectives of the probe was to ensure accountability and transparency in the execution of constituency projects and reduce alleged corruption. Also, the investigation was to find out if, indeed, the projects were executed according to stipulated guidelines, as well as to unravel if the funds appropriated for such contracts were actually spent.

During the investigation, ICPC had the support from the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), the Budget Office of the Federation (BoF), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, International Centre for Investigative, Public and Private Procurement community for Peace and Corruption-free Society and BudgIT, a non-governmental organisation that ensures that due process, accountability and transparency in the execution of public projects are met. The probe committee disclosed that its members, and other support bodies, visited the sites of the reported projects claimed to have been executed by the lawmakers, and found many of them either non-existent or abandoned.

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The President’s outburst did not go down well with the lawmakers. Some members of the Senate and the House of Representatives have faulted the President’s claims. In the Senate, many of the legislators said the President was misinformed by the ICPC. The Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, described the President’s umbrage against them as “self-indicting”. Many senators spoke in the same vein. Similarly, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said the ICPC report clearly “misled” the President. He said there was a clear difference between funds appropriated and actual amount released for constituency projects. Some of the lawmakers observed that although N1trillion might have been appropriated for constituency projects, actual release within the 10-year period was less than 40 per cent.

Regardless of what the lawmakers’ claims, there is no doubt that Nigerians are not feeling the impact of constituency projects in their constituents. The experience of those in the rural communities is disheartening. The results of the ICPC investigation seem to prove this neglect.  According to the anti-graft agency, its probe has forced more than 200 contractors to return to sites to complete the projects for which they had been paid. In this regard, the ICPC has our full support to rein in those behind the fraudulent constituency projects.  Therefore, we urge the anti-graft agencies to beam its searchlight on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and others involved in this financial malfeasance. The revelation by the ICPC chairman that N3.3 billion was found to have been paid into the private account of a staff of the Ministry of Water Resources, is shocking.

This is the time to streamline constituency projects and put measures in place to check inherent abuses in the system. All questionable constituency projects should be accounted for and the culprits brought to book. This is what Nigerians expect the ICPC to do. Available statistics from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation show that over N200billion was padded into the nation’s budgets from 2015-2017 for the execution of 6,399 constituency projects proposed by federal lawmakers. The amount was reportedly released in tranches, with N50bilion released in 2015. Lawmakers allegedly shared N100billion as ‘constituency development projects’.

The fact that a sizable percentage of the nation’s budget goes into such projects demands that they should be properly monitored and executed according to stipulated guidelines.  In the face of declining revenue, it has become necessary that all projects captured in the budget must be executed. Any money not accounted for should be refunded with interest. Anyone found to have breached the extant guidelines should be sanctioned. We enjoin that probing fraudulent projects should go beyond constituency projects, and be extended to the execution branch of government. This is the best way to ensure that our political leaders are accountable to the people.