The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have blamed the high cases of abandoned constituency projects and shoddy jobs on the involvements and conflict of interests by some members of the National Assembly in projects’ executions.
Representatives of the anti-graft agencies said this on Monday in their separate presentations during a policy dialogue on, “The Role of the Private Sector in the Implementation of Constituency Projects in Nigeria”, organised by OrderPaper Nigeria in collaboration with budgiT and MacArthur Foundation in Abuja.
EFCC chairman, Olanipekun Olukoyede in his presentation during the dialogue said the tendency of some National Assembly members in influencing the choice of contractors engaged in the execution of contracts for constituency projects was part of the factors responsible for abandonment of projects.
The EFCC boss, who was represented by a deputy director at the commission, Dr Eze Johnson, said investigations by the commission revealed conflict of interests involving some National Assembly members in the contract award and executions of some of the poorly executed and abandoned constituency projects investigated.
“At the EFCC, we can talk about our experience, what we see. I will not talk about it in generalizations. When I say generalizations, I mean one swipe covers everybody.
“We are not saying that every constituency project gets abandoned. We are not saying that every constituency project has problems.
“No. We are saying from our experience, that there are challenges in the implementation of a lot of constituency projects. And we are not just the ones saying it.
“Who was responsible for the abandonment? Why was it abandoned? Were monies paid? Who was responsible? We go after the contractor, and the contractor very often says, money was given. Or some money was given. What happened? Why did you not complete the work?
“We go after the bill of quantities and discover that a lot of times it is stuffed. A lot of times, if the bill say this, lower quality or quantity was supplied so that some money would be made available. We follow that money and discover very often that money goes back to places that they were not supposed to be going to.
“I’m talking fact. I’m not here to conjecture, to assume; it’s something I do on a day-to-day basis; I can tell you that. But remember I said, I’m not painting the brush on everybody. No, I’m not saying everybody is bad.
“I don’t want to say politically exposed persons. No. The people behind the companies are people who have interests with the legislators.
“Conflict of interest issues begin to come up. Now, I am saying fact. I can’t waste time with theoretical stuff. So checking behind the scenes, you see that money from here went to here. Checking behind the scenes, you see some names.”
He said through selective bidding processes, contracts for constituency projects were awarded to contractors who are proxies of such legislators.
“Why do they have to be selective tendering? Selective tendering guarantees that that project will go to a particular contractor. And when you check that contractor, that contractor has interests that link up to somebody else up there,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, the ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu, blamed the involvements of lawmakers on the challenges facing the executions of constituency projects.
He recalled a case of a member of the House of Representatives who became angry with the commission for stopping his project.
“He was angry with us that we stopped his project. Just to tell you that it’s not totally true that some of them are not involved.
“Let’s be honest with ourselves. He was angry with us, and we were discussing on budget, and he wanted to raise hell. I said, if you raise hell, my brother, you’ll be exposing yourself.
“But it’s the truth that some of us, or some of our colleagues, our brothers in the National Assembly, are deeply involved in this,” he said.
Speaking in an address, the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, said there was a need for contractors to be efficient and exhibit transparency in the execution of constituency projects.
He, however, exonerated members of the National Assembly of any blames in the execution of constituency projects, adding, the idea of holding lawmakers responsible for constituency projects that are not delivered efficiently or timely should be eroded.
“It is the responsibility of the private sector, as represented by the contractors and other stakeholders in the private sector, to ensure that constituency projects are delivered timely, and efficiently, to meet the needs of the local communities,” he said.
Earlier, the Executive Director of OrderPaper Nigeria, Oke Epia, said the dialogue was put together to chart way forward on issues of abandoned and poorly executed constituency projects to ensure that communities across benefits from such projects.
He said bringing critical stakeholders together for dialogue would help in unearthing and addressing the issues of corruption and lack of transparency in the execution of constituency projects in the country.