Tracka, BudgIT’s service delivery promotion platform, which allows citizens to collaborate, track, and give feedback on public projects in their communities, has uncovered N8.6 billion payments to 26 contractors for 19 projects across nine states that had either been abandoned or not done at all.
A report by the civil advocacy organization circulated to our correspondent on Wednesday indicated that some of the projects and payments made included the N542 million paid to Abu-Halawa International Limited between December 2020 and April 2023 under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources for the Construction of Jare Earth Dam in Katsina, without any work done so far on the site
It also listed other payments as the N630 million to Babar Global Services Nigeria Ltd and Foundation Solid (Nig) Ltd between July 2022 and September 2023 under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources for the Construction of the Ogbese Multi-Purpose Dam Project, Ekiti State, the site which has been abandoned since 2021 and the payment of N400 million to Laralek Ultimate Ltd in March 2023 under the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing for the limited rehabilitation of Opo Malu Road, Saki, Oyo State without any sign of work on the site
These and other payments for non-executed projects were uncovered in the 2022 Project Tracking Report with the theme ‘Empowering Communities for Economic Growth’, which reviews Tracka’s work and documents findings from the 3,691 projects monitored across 22 states in Nigeria between August 2022 and August 2023.
The civil advocacy organization disclosed that of these projects, 2,037 were completed, 1,012 are ongoing, 533 were unexecuted, and 109 have been abandoned as of the time of filing this report.
According to the report, under capital projects, Kebbi had the highest completion rate at 76%, Oyo had the lowest at 25%, and Taraba had the highest rate of abandoned projects at 27%.
On constituency projects, Tracka reported that Bauchi had the highest completion rate with 97%, Oyo had the lowest with 28%, while Nasarawa, with 23%, had the highest rate of abandoned projects. The report also gives an overview of the implementation of 2022 Constituency and Capital projects across 15 states and highlights pertinent needs and abandoned projects across them.
Commenting on the report’s findings, BudgIT’s Country Director, Gabriel Okeowo, expressed displeasure over contractors’ non-execution of commissioned projects.
He lamented: “Despite the clamor for increased allocations to capital expenditure by FG and sub-nationals, our tracking exercise has revealed that capital projects are the largest conduits of embezzlement and misappropriation. Lack of effective oversight on the part of the legislators and Ministries, Department, and Agencies has largely contributed to the high level of poor project execution and, in some cases, outright abandonment of projects.
“Governments at all levels need to take public project execution more seriously, considering the huge infrastructure gaps we are grappling with as a nation. We also hope that the new administration of President Bola Tinubu will find a way to block these loopholes and leakages; if not, our expenditure will amount to pouring water into a basket”, the Country Director added.
Tracka called on the anti-graft agencies (the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to question and probe these misappropriations in the 2022 budget expenditures and prosecute erring contractors.
In addition, it also urged elected lawmakers to pay attention to the needs of their constituents and abandoned projects highlighted in the report, as they serve as pointers to where public funds should be directed to ensure efficient use of scarce public resources.
