Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has urged Nigerians to look into and own any project carried out in their communities.
It noted that such investigation would improve the quality of project delivery and accountability of the contractors.
The Akwa Ibom State ICPC Head, Executive and Constituency Project Tracking Team, Mr Okam Ukuku who stated this on Tuesday, at the four-day annual inspection exercise in the state, also encouraged them to actively engage their Senators and House of Representative members before any constituency project is sited so that their needs would be prioritized.
Ukuku told the people that constituency projects are funded by the budget, therefore they should be involved in monitoring the type and quality of projects brought to them through their representatives.
According to him, “Constituency projects are funded by the budget and it is a federal government funded thing. If you pay tax in Nigeria, those community constituency projects are part of your tax that you pay which you’re benefiting from. It is not like it is the senator or the house of assembly member that is trying to bring clout to you. The senator or the house of assembly member is only a conduit to bring down the federal might to your locale.
Giving insight in the tracking exercise, Ukuku stated that 25% of lapses has been discovered on the part of contractors saying, ‘as we go on, we will know how compliant each contractor was because at the end of the day, anywhere we don’t see what is meant to be on ground, we bring the contractor back. If the contractor cannot go back, he refunds the money to government coffers.”
He stated that the commission is tracking 71 projects this year alongside six primary health care projects, making it 76 projects in total even as he noted that a visit to one of the primary health centres in Ibesikpo Asutan showed that solarization that should have been carried out in that facility was not done.
“We went to three primary health centres in Ibesikpo, Asutan yesterday. So in one of them they were meant to have done solarization, that is giving them solar panels and inverter. But as we reached there, we could not find anything. We went to the other place, the solarization was done, everywhere was fully lit and the solar functioning. The third place, they did solar powered Borehole. That one also is functional,” he said.”
He also cited instance where deep freezers were given to some constituents as part of constituency project without the community having electricity saying if there was proper consultation and needs assessment before the empowerment, electricity would have been prioritized even as he advised the people to take advantage of constituency office in their locality to register their intentions.
“A constituency office should be where the constituents go and tell their representative or their senator what they actually need, for instance we went to where these deep freezers were distributed and there was no light. So the key thing should have been for them to bring light to that locality before a deep freezer is given to somebody. People should learn to meet with their representative or senator and tell them their needs. So that when the senator is presenting something or wants to go and bring in an amenity, it will be in line with what the people need,” Ukuku admonished.
