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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. Xtradegrok
