THE Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related offenses Commission (ICPC), says it has widened the scope of its constituency project tracking to accommodate projects below N100 million.
Jimoh Sulahhiman, ICPC’s Assistant Commissioner made the disclosure on Wednesday during a radio programme, Public Conscience produced by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development ( PRIMORG).
It will be recalled that ICPC has flagged off the second phase of constituency projects, having made marked success in the first phase.
While responding to questions on the radio programme, Sulahhiman, said the Commission wouldn’t have achieved much if it tracked all projects, hence, it focused on projects with threshold of N100 million.
He added that ICPC has been tracking projects that are above N1oo million.
“We just started last year, that was why we brought the threshold to N100 million, definitely now that it is continuing, we have to go back to maybe 50 million,” Sulahhiman said.
“These are project that make the people in the community feel that there are project in their community.”
He explained that people at the grassroots should also contribute by writing and getting involved, telling the Commission what is happening in their community.
According to him, if a project is 20 million and they feel it was not well executed, the Commission will go there and see what has happened.
“So it doesn’t mean we are going to stay put in a hundred million treasury we can come down to 50, 20 and even 10,” he said.
When asked the experiences ICPC gathered during the first phase of constituency projects tracking, Sulahhiman said “we saw that the legislator can put a project on his land, and before we know it, it becomes a hotel, these are the issues we see on the field.”
Azuka Ogugua, ICPC’s Acting Head of Department, Public Enlightenment and Spokesperson, revealed that the Commission tracked projects in 12 states which are; Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi , Benue, Enugu, Edo, Imo, Kano, Kogi, Lagos, Osun, Sokoto, as well as part of the FCT.
She said the second phase will accommodate Cross River, Taraba, Ekiti, Ogun, Gombe, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Kwara, Jigawa, Abia, Delta, Ebonyi, Niger, Rivers, Oyo, and Kaduna, and will focus on the following sectors: health, education, water resources, agriculture, and power.
Earlier, a co-convener of the programme, Okhiria Agbosuremi added his voice to ICPC’s call for citizens to become more proactive in reporting abandoned or uncompleted projects in their localities.
The programme PUBLIC CONSCIENCE by PRIMORG is supported by the MacArthur Foundation.