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Lack of Awareness, Corruption Responsible for Poor Execution of Constituency Projects, Says Budget Expert
Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja
Lack of awareness, corruption and improper budgeting have been identify as major impediments to the poor execution of constituency projects across the country, a facilitator and budget expert, Mr. Henry Omokhaye, has said.
He made this know at a two-day workshop and training for journalists on Budget Monitoring and Tracking of Constituency Protects, held in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, at weekend.
The workshop was organised by a non- governmental organisation, the Stallion Times Media Service, in collaboration with Wole Soyinka Investigative Journalism and the MacArthur Foundation.
Omokhaye explained that lack of knowledge and participation by the members of the host community in budget process and execution of the constituency projects have been a recurring decimal across the country, noting that the members of the National Assembly have given too much of power to nominate projects.
He noted that in most cases, some communities did not know that constituency projects are located in their areas simply because none of people of these communities are aware of them nor did they participate in the budget process for the same projects.
The budget expert pointed out that in other hand, corruption has largely been responsible for poor execution of the constituency projects, arguing that despite the nomination by the federal or the state lawmakers, some would connived with contractors and supervising agencies to cut corners.
He posited that the improper budget for specific projects occasioned by ceiling from the ministry or parastatals is not helping matter, adding that some constituency projects had been abandoned without hope because the amount released was not enough to complete them.
The expert added that experience has shown that when must of the constituency projects were monitor and tracked, over 60 percent were poorly executed and not even beneficial to the host communities of these projects.
He, therefore, tasked journalists and all Nigerians to be actively involved in budget processes, monitoring and tracking either of the constituency projects or other states and federal government’s projects to enhance the anticipated development across the country.
Earlier, the Project Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer, Stallion Times, Isiyaku Ahmed, while speaking during the opening ceremony of the two-day media training on budget monitoring and tracking, stated that the workshop was organised by the NGO to expose journalists to salient issues on around budgetary allocation and constituency projects.