The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, has disclosed that the commission would this month begin tracking of projects being executed by the federal government’s ministries and departments to ensure quality project delivery across the country.
A statement by the spokesperson for the commission, Mrs. Rasheedat Okoduwa, said the ICPC chairman stated this during a two-day retreat for management of the commission and members of the National Assembly Committees on Anti-Corruption.
Owasanoye said tracking of executive projects under the Constituency and Executive Project Tracking Group initiative of the commission was informed by the success recorded in the constituency tracking project last year.
“We fully appreciate that apart from constituency projects, other projects being executed by ministries, departments and agencies that are not connected to members of the National Assembly will also be tracked.
“Consequently, starting from March, the ICPC will commence the tracking of both executive and constituency projects.”
Owasanoye added that the commission had already listed priority sectors and projects for the exercise.
According to him, the focus would be on key sectors of education, health, agriculture, power and water resources.
The ICPC chairman said the commission would employ technology to track all the priority projects, saying that the 2020 national budget had been broken down and analysed by the ICPC to ensure proper tracking.
“We have already dissected the 2020 budget. We have broken it down on a sectoral basis. We will also leverage technology. We have engaged partners who have technologies that will track all the hospitals in Nigeria. We will use these technologies so that nobody will lie to us.”
The ICPC statement said the chairman took advantage of the retreat to address what he described as perceived misconception surrounding constituency projects tracking.
According to him, constituency project idea was a well-thought- out initiative by legislators to bring government closer to the electorate. He noted, however, that implementation had become a source of concern.
