About a week after the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) announced that it was set to embark on the second phase of its Constituency project tracking initiative through its Constituency Project Tracking Group (CPTG), the House of Representatives has said that the commission exaggerated costs of constituency projects and had been peddling wrong figures.
Wednesday at plenary, the House of Representatives accused the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) of supplying misleading estimates and statistics which President Muhammadu Buhari relied upon to assert that close to N1 trillion was expended on National Assembly members’ constituency projects in the last 10 years.
President Buhari had on Tuesday, at an event organised by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in conjunction with the ICPC, declared that about N1 trillion was wasted in the last decade on National Assembly members in the form of constituency projects.
He said that data collected from Nigerians in rural communities pointed to the fact that they had not felt the impact of the said projects, as there was no commensurate result with the funds spent.
But at Wednesday’s plenary, the Minority Leader, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta) raised a point of order, in which he argued that the said figures were incorrect, and breached his privileges as a member of the National Assembly.
He submitted that the budgeted figures in the annual budgets do not equate to actual funds released.
He said: “Last year, there was a release of about 40 percent only, and we are not sure if releases will be up to 50 percent this year”.
Supporting the motion, the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) argued that the biggest problem with such projects was poor release of funds for their execution, adding that those who informed the president failed to take such into consideration.
It will be recalled however crimefacts.news had reported that the ICPC Chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, during a pre-planning retreat for officers of the Commission and stakeholders in the Constituency Project Tracking Group (CPTG), said that over 200 contractors had returned to sites to complete water, health-care and many other projects that were hitherto abandoned following the impact of the first phase of the Constituency project tracking exercise by the Commission.
Owasanoye added that CPTG recorded other successes that include the recoveries of six tractors, ambulances, dialysis machines and other hospital equipment from the sponsors of the projects across the 12 pilot states.
He added, “The successes further include the recovery of huge sums of money from the sponsors of the projects as well as ensuring the distribution of hundreds of tricycles, grinding machines and other empowerment items, some of which were secured in 2016, to beneficiaries.”
The Commission’s Chairman maintained that but for the CPTG initiative, monies released by the federal government for the benefit of the people through the implementation of constituency projects, would have been diverted by the sponsors of the projects, contractors and other collaborators.
