Federal Government, in an effort to tackle corruption, has uncovered 1,721 abandoned projects worth N284.6 billion. These projects were either shoddily executed or not done at all between 2019 and 2023, and are mainly domiciled in roads, health, water resources, education, agriculture, power, and energy.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) made these discoveries known through its Constituency Projects Tracking Group (CPTG) to 26 focal states and the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT) across the six geo-political zones of the country. In most instances, the Commission either had to direct the contractor handling the project to return to site for completion or requests that funds be refunded to government’s coffers or risk prosecution.
The ICPC document on CPTG, which centered on phase six projects, put the total appropriation tracked at N219.8 billion, spread across 176 Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs). Under Phase Six tracking, the total number of completed projects wae put at 1,492, amounting to 86.7 per cent.
Disclosing its findings on cases of abandoned projects or instances of poor quality projects, it revealed the existence of connivance between the staff of MDAs and contractors, a pattern ICPC said was consistent with the previous published reports.
“These infractions were found perpetuated by the project’s facilitators or contractors in collaboration with staff executing agencies” it said. Detailing the pattern of fraud associated with empowerment projects as major conduit for siphoning public resources, ICPC said: “Empowerment/soft projects desire special attention.
The aggregate number of empowerment projects tracked amounts to 449 1(26.2%) of the tracked projects while the aggregate value of contracts awarded on empowerment projects stood at N35.5 billion “.
Shedding lights on CEPTI activities, the commission said: “Cumulative savings for government is the sum total of our recoveries and the estimated value of those projects on which contractors were compelled back to sites as a result of CEPTI activities. “These amounts were computed as savings for government.
These are monies that would have been lost/ misappropriated save for the commission’ intervention.” The commission put cumulative savings for government at N30.2 billion, recoveries in assets N513.3 billion and cash recoveries of N162.5 billion.
CEPTI is an ICPC initiative for tracking implementation of public funded projects to ensure diligent execution and value for money in government projects.
Members of CEPTI include state and non-state actors, which comprise stakeholders such as Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Auditor General of the Federation (AGF), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Budget Office, and members of civil society organisations and the media.
