257 projects worth N20bn duplicated in 2021 budget – ICPC

*Says Labour ministry, UCH Ibadan involved in recruitment scam

The chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Bolaji Owasanoye, says 257 projects amounting to N20.138 billion were duplicated in the 2021 budget.

The ICPC chairman while speaking at the third national summit on diminishing corruption in the public service with the theme “Corruption and the Cost of Governance: New Imperatives for Fiscal Transparency”, said the commission tracked 1083 projects across the country with the exception of Borno and Zamfara owing to security challenges.

He said during the exercise, the ICPC forced 67 contractors back to site and ensured completion of 966 projects worth N310 billion some of which were hitherto abandoned.

The ICPC chairman said: “Our findings indicate that the same malady of corruption afflicts executive as well as zip projects thus undermining government projections, escalating the cost of governance and denying Nigeria value for money.

“These maladies include poor needs assessment that disconnects projects from beneficiaries; false certification of uncompleted contracts as completed, deliberate underperformance of contracts, incessant criminal diversion and conversion of public property by civil servants, to name just a few.

“Other challenges relate to duplication of projects in the budget. ICPC review found that 257 projects amounting to N20.138bn were duplicated in the 2021 budget leading us to submit an advisory to the Honourable minister of finance which was promptly actioned by the minister to prevent abuse.”

The ICPC chairman also said the ministry of labour and the University College Hospital Ibadan are involved in illegal recruitment.

Owasanoye said an investigation carried out by the ICPC revealed that several MDAs are involved in illegal recruitment which reflects in the huge wage bill on personnel and operational costs standing at about 70 percent of the annual budget.

“A major push factor on high cost of governance and rising personnel budget is illegal recruitment, illegal and unilateral increase in wages and remuneration by some MDAs, indiscriminate local and international travels, unreasonable demands by some political appointee board members of MDAs without regard for extant circulars on cost management; procurement fraud, budget padding, etc.

“ICPC investigation of some cases of illegal recruitment forwarded to us by the head of the civil service of the federation has so far implicated the Ministry of Labour and the University College Hospital Ibadan and a number of corrupt staff of other MDAs at a lower level.

This abuse of power is consummated with complicity of compromised elements in IPPIS. These cases are currently under investigation,” the ICPC chairman said.

Speaking further, Owasanoye added that “at another level, a syndicate of corrupt individuals within the service corruptly employ unsuspecting Nigerians, issue them fake letters of employment, fraudulently enrol them on IPPIS and post them to equally unsuspecting MDAs to commence work”.

“ICPC is prosecuting one of the leaders of the syndicate from whose custody we retrieved several fake letters of recommendation purportedly signed by the chief of staff to the president, Honourable ministers, federal civil service commission and other high ranking Nigerians,” he said.