Tracka, BudgIT’s service delivery promotion platform which allows citizens to collaborate, track and give feedback on public projects in their communities, stated at the weekend that it found that N58.2 billion of the N100 billion constituency projects was allocated to empowerment projects.
In a statement on the alleged misappropriation of the fund, the civil advocacy organization faulted the alleged fiscal abuse, maintaining that in most cases, the empowerment projects are customarily vague and challenging to track.
Similarly, it further alleged that the empowerment projects had also been used as a funnel to transfer political benefits to party loyalists, particularly in a pre-election year.
According to Tracka, the 2022 ZIPs also consist of 41 projects with unspecified locations amounting to N4.89 billion broken down by MDAs as follows: Agriculture – 10, Education – 2, Health – 1, Humanitarian – 1, Information and Culture – 1, NASENI – 2, Science and Technology – 15, Water Resources – 3, SGF – 3, and Special Duties – 1.
The organization reiterated the importance of having detailed documentation of project locations as this provides the citizens with the correct information to hold the government accountable.
It expressed concern that whenever details of public projects were unavailable to the public, monitoring the implementation of such projects becomes difficult for the citizens, civil society, and auditing bodies. This creates a loophole for under-delivery and embezzlement of public funds.
For instance, Tracka stated that under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, N250m was allocated for the Supply of motorcycles, grinding machines, and sewing machines to women and youth in North Central; however, no specific project location (state, local government area, ward, street and community) was stated.
Commenting on these projects, Head of Tracka, Uadamen Ilevbaoje, expressed the organisation’s displeasure over the high level of misplaced priority regarding projects nominated by elected representatives, poor service delivery, and lack of citizen inclusion in the project nomination process by the legislators at the National Assembly.
He pointed out that these irregularities were reflected in the high number of empowerment projects littered across the 2022 ZIPs, adding that a case in point is the N28 billion allocated to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture under different agencies was not for agricultural-based projects but empowerment projects.
The civil activist also noted that likewise, the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation had an allocation of N13 billion; however, a good number of projects under this office were empowerment projects that may not meet the people’s needs.
Ilevbaoje observed that on projects domiciled in agencies whose mandates were not relevant to executing them, the Public Complaint Commission got N100m for procuring 1 unit of CAT D7H wheel bulldozer caterpillar equipment for rural road rehabilitation in Ondo Central Senatorial District, Ondo state.
He stated: “Projects should be assigned to appropriate ministries and agencies that have the mandate of overseeing them. The incapability of many agencies to effectively supervise projects has led to the poor execution of many projects, thereby wasting taxpayers’ funds.”
Tracka further maintained that an agency saddled with the responsibility of addressing public complaints from citizens had no business implementing constituency projects outside its purview.
In addition, the civil advocacy group charged Nigerian lawmakers to duly perform oversight functions, provide timely updates to the public, carry citizens along, and ensure the quality implementation of the projects they nominated so that citizens can derive maximum benefits from public funds.
