The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission, ICPC, says it has tracked down 424 abandoned projects in 12 states of the federation, since the introduction of Constituency Projects Tracking Group initiative, CPTGi, last year.
The director, Education and Communication of the ICPC, Mohammed Ashir-Baba, made the disclosure at a town hall meeting, titled ‘my constituency, my project’, organized by the commission in collaboration with National Orientation Agency, NOA, held in Kano on Tuesday.
According to him, the exercise was a huge success in the pilot states as a lot of abandoned projects were completed “or are now being completed because of the intervention by ICPC”.
Mr Ashir-Baba stated that the exercise also led to the recovery of equipment and machinery meant for the benefit of the ordinary Nigerians which were kept away and not distributed.
He added that many of such items had been distributed to the right beneficiaries.
The ICPC director further disclosed that some Nigerian lawmakers are in the habit of either using the money meant for constituency projects for their personal needs or executing projects with less amount than appropriated.
“We have found a lawmaker who bought a luxury car for himself as a constituency project. We have also discovered some trucks bought by one representative as a constituency project but diverted some of them to his farm.
“Some lawmakers would say they will provide empowerment for their constituents but they end up providing less than the money they have collected for that.
“This is why we have introduced this initiative in order to stop corruption in the projects executed by the government to ensure they are executed or done satisfactorily,” he said.
Earlier in his remark, the director, National Orientation Agency NOA, Kano Office, Lawan Haruna, said it is a duty over his agency to sensitize the general public about the importance of monitoring constituency projects in communities and report any suspecting dubious act of such provision.
“People should be fully aware that all the projects are executed with government money, not lawmakers’ as many previously thought and expected,” he said.
