An NGO, Connected Development (CODE) on Friday sought the partnership of the Independence Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to track constituency projects in Kaduna State.
Mr Kinsley Agu, CODE’s Project Manager, made the call in Kaduna, when he led officials of the organisation to the ICPC Zonal Commissioner, Kaduna Office, Mr Shehu Yahaya.
Agu said that CODE would mobilise citizens to track N6.0 billion worth of federal constituency projects budgeted for Kaduna State in 2020 and 2021.
He explained that the constituency projects would be tracked under a project tagged, “Deepening Citizens’ Interest in Government Spending and Addressing Accompanying Corrupt Practices (DeSPAAC)”.
He said that the project would be implemented across the three Senatorial Zones of the state with support from McArthur Foundation, between 2021 and 2023.
He said that the monitoring and tracking of the projects would be carried out using Community Monitoring Team (CMT), which would be set up from existing community structures.
The project manager said that DeSPAAC was designed to deepen citizens interest in government spending and curb corrupt practices in the implementation of constituency projects in Kaduna State.
According to him, the partnership with ICPC would enable CMT to report and escalate shoddy projects, abandoned ones or any form of corrupt practices in the delivery of the projects.
“We have tracked over N500 million worth of Universal Basic Education intervention projects in four local government areas in the last three years.
“We conducted a needs assessment and submitted our findings and recommendations to the state government after which we conducted an impact assessment to find out what has changed at the end of the project.
“The report, which we submitted to key ministries, departments and agencies showed significant improvement in investment in the education sector, with most of the schools renovated and equipped with the needed facilities.
“MacArthur Foundation has extended its support to CODE for another three years but with focus on constituency projects and we need your support and partnership to succeed.”
Responding, the ICPC Commissioner commended CODE for mobilising citizens to monitor the delivery of government projects.
Yahaya said that the ICPC has equally tracked 81 executive and constituency projects amounting to about N5.0 billion, adding that some of the contractors that did a bad job had to return to site.
“I am very happy that civil society organisations are becoming interested in
tracking constituency projects to ensure that the projects are delivered according to specifications.
“We will be happy to collaborate with you in line with the provisions of our mandate,” he said. (NAN)
