Federal Legislators Diverting N58 Billion From Constituency Projects Yearly – Investigation

By Ayodele Oluwafemi

Tracka, a subsidiary of BudgIT, a Non Governmental Body devoted to enthroning transparency in public finances has slammed federal legislators over the misuse of N58 billion out of the N100 billion earmarked for Constituency Projects.

The group said that its tracking of the constituency projects revealed that the N58 billion had been earmarked for “political benefits.”

The group faulted the non-inclusion of citizens in the nomination of Zonal Intervention Projects, leading to escalating number of abandoned projects across the country.

In a statement, by its  Head Ilevbaoje Uadamen, the group opined that between 2015 to 2019 projects worth N270 billion were either left incomplete or poorly implemented, despite the huge amount of funds allocated for capital expenditure yearly.

Part of the statement reads: “In the 2019 budget, Tracka discovered under the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) that N1.5 billion was allocated for provision of ICT, Mathematics, and English language textbooks for JSS1-3 by MMP to selected secondary schools. We note with dismay that these projects bear no details of the states, local governments and senatorial districts of beneficiaries, same as there is zero specifications of where the projects will be domiciled. In total, projects with unspecified locations (in the 2019 budget) account for more than N5.8 billion out of N100 billion total.

“The failure to provide these locations is antithetical to democracy because it deprives communities, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and auditing bodies the opportunity to monitor and ensure proper implementation of the government’s obligations to the people.

More so, Tracka found that over 650 projects are budgeted under agencies that do not have the mandate to execute them. For instance, some empowerment projects are packaged under agencies of the presidency which we believe are either priority misplacement or even channels for embezzlement. Such projects include the “Supply of motorcycles, grinding machines and sewing machines for distribution in 11 federal constituencies of Bauchi State” for N330 million by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Office of the Presidency. We are seeing a pattern where citizens are handpicked and constituency projects are used for political purposes.

“Tracka calls, again, on elected representatives to properly engage their constituents in the budget-making process. As the fundamental purpose of constituency projects, this is the ultimate way to ensure that the core needs of the citizens are in a timely fashion captured in the annual fiscal plan, as rural communities also feel the impact of the federal government.

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