By Bushrah Yusuf-Badmus
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) on Wednesday in Ilorin began the tracking of N1.802 billion executive projects in Kwara.
Mr Nathaniel Sikpi, thebPrincipal Superintendent Investigation, ICPC Kogi Office, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin that the essence of the tracking was to ensure value for money.
Sikpi said the tracking exercise, which is in its 6th phase, comprised 15 projects across the three senatorial districts in the state.
He explained that the tracking was to ensure that the projects were not executed only on paper, but physically on ground.
”The contract may be awarded and excuted on paper and monies paid fully, but at the end of the day, no location and the supposed beneficiary (in case of empowerment) are not even aware of such.
”The tracking of projects cuts across both executive and constituency projects, and the ones we are tracking now are majorly executive projects,” he said.
The ICPC officer added that Quantity Surveyors (QS) were part of the team of trackers to ensure that reports were made from the professional angle.
Sikpi added that the commission always followed up already tracked projects to ensure compliance of orders given.
”There is always a follow up after tracking these projects and the commission adopts two major strategies.
”If it is a construction project, and we discovered that it was not well carried out, we force the contractor to go back to site and complete such, so that it will benefit those it is meant for.
”If it is an empowerement project, which is a bit tricky, we have a way of going around it, when we discover that the job is not executed effectively, we will recover funds.
”And so far, we have recovered funds in billions which is available for the public to see on the website of the commission at www.icpc.gov.ng,” he said.
For the tracking at the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC), the ICPC official said the vehicles procured were not the ones specified in the contract.
He said the contract indicated 2022 model 32 seater Toyota Coaster Bus, but Mikano Hilux was procured.
Reacting to the changes, Sikpi said further investigations would be carried out because the vehicles were procured from the head office and sent down to the state office.
”It is possible that coaster bus was procured at the headquarters but it was later discovered that because of the terrain, they decided to give them hilux.
”And it is possible that they did not procure the vehicle that the contract specified.
”Whichever is the case, we will find out and we may likely subject it to further investigations which will determine our conclusion,” he said.
He added that investigations would also be carried out on the sales of fertiliser at subsisidised rates as against free distribution that was stated in the contract.e
Reacting to the findings, the Kwara Coordinator of HYPPADEC, Hajia Hajara Alhassan, said the procured vehicles were more suitable for the terrain of the communities due to bad roads.
”The hilux is good for most of our communities because most of these communities are suburb and coaster buses cannot go to the communities like Patigi, Tsaragi and Gbugbu.
”And on the fertilisers, we were directed by the commission to distribute at subsidised rates to farmers.
”The payment was made into the TSA account that was given to us by the commission.
”So, the farmers paid to the community who in turn paid to the account collectively; NPK was distributed at N9,600, while Urea was distributed at N10,400 per bag each,” Alhassan explained.
At the National Health Insurance Agency, the team was to track the construction of the physical building as well as the furnishing and partitioning of the offices.
Sikpi said nothing could be tracked on the building because the Bill of Quantity (BOQ) was not available and the contractor, Ismade Integrated Nigeria Limited, was not picking his calls after learning of the team’s presence.
The ICPC officer said the building would be subjected to further investigations and that the contractor would have to be invited to the ICPC office for questioning.
NAN reports that the team would be visiting Moro, Edu and Baruten Local Government Areas of the state on Thursday and Friday for further tracking. (NAN)
