MORE than four months after the 2024 fiscal budget was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, details of the “Constituency Projects” fund totalling N100 billion are yet to be published and made public.
Constituency projects are also known as Zonal Intervention Project (ZIP).
The Constituency projects are mostly nominated by the members of the legislature and inserted into the budget for implementation in their respective constituencies. However, there are concerns that the details of the fund are not yet published to enable proper tracking of such projects.
This development is coming following the approval of N28.78 trillion as fiscal appropriation for 2024, January 1.
The approved budget was an increase of over N1.2 trillion from the N27.5 trillion proposal that Tinubu laid before the joint sitting of the National Assembly on November 2023.
Contained in the approved budget are projects nominated by the 469 members of the National Assembly worth N100 billion as ZIP, also called constituency projects, to ensure equity in the allocation of projects sited in the constituencies of state and federal lawmakers by various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of government in the budgets of the federation or state.
The ZIP fund was first introduced during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999.
However, BudgIT, a civic society organisation, pointed out that it is the first time, in 10 years, this has happened.
BudgIT also noted that the 2023 third and fourth-quarter Budget Implementation Reports and Monthly Fiscal Account of the Federal Government, particularly between September 2023 and April 2024, are yet to be published.
BudgIT Foundation’s Country Director, Gabriel Okeowo, said, “All necessary fiscal documents must be available to the public to ensure an open, transparent, and accountable budget implementation process and enable citizens to monitor and ensure the delivery of these projects, especially in the current economic reality.”
The ICIR in several investigations has reported how projects, worth millions of naira, have been abandoned in state communities like Sokoto, Abuja, Jigawa, and Ogun among others. Several reports on The ICIR Open Contracting Reporting Project detail the mismanagement of public funds in executing projects
Kehinde Ogunyale tells stories by using data to hold power into account. You can send him a mail at jameskennyogunyale@gmail or Twitter: Prof_KennyJames | LinkedIn: Kehinde Ogunyale