ICPC decries poor management of completed constituency projects

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences
Commission has decried the poor maintenance of some completed
constituency projects across the country.

The commission said billions of naira were being wasted because
some of the projects had been vandalised and equipment stolen.

During the presentation of the commission’s report on the first
phase of constituency tracking initiative recently, the ICPC
Chairman, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, told President Muhammadu Buhari
that despite the release of N1trn to lawmakers and government
agencies for the execution of constituency projects nationwide, the
impact was not being felt by people in the communities.

He added that while many of the projects were not executed after
the release of the money, some of the ones that were executed were
far below standard and specification.

Owasanoye said some projects’ sponsors (lawmakers) diverted
project materials meant for the people for personal use.

In an interview with our correspondent, one of the commission’s
coordinators of constituency project tracking initiative, Jimoh
Sulahiman, said after visiting Osun and Benue states on tracking
mission recently, the ICPC discovered that some completed projects
were not handed over to the communities while some had been
abandoned due to lack of maintenance.

The tracking team was led by a member of the ICPC Board, Hajiya
Hannatu Mohammed.

Sulahiman said, “We visited Ila-Orangun and Osobo in Osun State
and some of our findings were not good enough. Millions of naira
released for some projects by the Federal Government were not
justifiably used.

“In Benue State, we visited sites where multimillion-naira water
projects were executed but for a few of them, what we saw was not
good enough and the communities cannot be exonerated from the decay
and vandalisation of the projects.”

“At Aliade, a completed solar-powered water project with
120,000-litre capacity had yet to be properly handed over to the
community while at Ikpanyogo, Gwer East area of the state, another
water project which cost about N10.8m is no longer working after
about two years of usage.

“The custodian of the project said the pumping machine developed
a fault and after it was removed, the engineer they consulted said
it would cost N250,000 to fix it. From our own assessment, however,
with just about N40,000, a new pumping machine would restore the
project.

“We also learnt at Ise-Kon village in Makurdi that robbers
attempted to vandalise a functioning water project thrice before
the custodian secured it properly.”

Mohammed urged community leaders and people to accept the
responsibility of taking care of completed projects in their
communities.

She said after the projects had been handed over to them, they
became the communities’ and people’s property.