Investigation reveals public officials connive with dubious contractors
CEPTI orders 163 contractors back to site
Findings from the Phase VI tracking of Constituency and Executive Projects by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government have exposed how officials of executing agencies connive with contractors to execute shoddy projects.
The Constituency and Executive Project Tracking Initiative (CEPTI), an intervention initiative conceived to engender good governance, prevent corruption and enhance transparency and accountability on government-funded projects, conducted the investigation.
This is done through the yearly analysis of national budgets to flag irregularities such as duplicated projects across MDAs, highlighting inserted projects and projects that MDAs do not have the human resources or skill set to execute as well as monitoring budget performance and project execution to ensure value for money.
While the exercise was limited to 26 states across the six geopolitical zones, the report of the exercise presented showed that a total of 1,721 government-funded projects, with a total value standing at N284, 602,881,868.57, were tracked.
The tracking revealed infractions ranging from project underperformance, non-distribution of empowerment items, and project abandonment, among others.
The Phase VI tracking cycle in five focal sectors includes projects from six intervention agencies, namely, North East Development Commission (NEDC); Ecological Fund Office (EFO); Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP); Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF); and National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
The number of projects completed under the phase was higher (1,492 projects, amounting to 86.7 per cent), although findings in terms of connivance between staff of MDAs and contractors are a lot similar to the findings highlighted in the previously published reports.
According to the report, in the course of the tracking exercise, 163 contractors, whose project execution was found not to comply with the Bill of Quantities or who had abandoned their projects, were compelled to return to project sites, and the value of such projects stood at N30,260,788,929.77. The report added that investigations were still ongoing on some of the infractions detected.
The discoveries, according to the report, have made the commission, among others, direct further investigations on issues uncovered, resulting in the recovery of cash and assets, and enforced the distribution of hoarded items to the intended beneficiaries.
On the non-distribution of empowerment Items, it noted that the items meant to be distributed to intended beneficiaries were procured, but hoarded by the project facilitators, possibly for electoral campaign activities.
It further observed that some agencies were in the habit of handing over empowerment items to stakeholders for onward distribution to the intended beneficiaries, lamenting that the practice had encouraged hoarding and politicisation of the empowerment-sharing processes, especially within NEDC and Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC).
MEANWHILE, in Niger State, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has commenced the tracking of phase 7 of the Constituency and Executive Projects.
An ICPC tracker, Mallam Sai’du Yahaya, disclosed this during the tracking exercise in Minna, yesterday.
He said about 80 projects would be tracked across various sectors, including education, health, water resources, power, empowerment, and agriculture, among others.
Yahaya disclosed that the projects, valued at N13.9 billion, commenced in 2022 and 2023 across various sectors.
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