Constituency projects are nominated by representatives either at the federal or state level for the primary benefit of those at the grassroots. It is also a means for citizens to feel the impact of governance in their respective communities. These projects are implemented with tax payer monies. Nigerians have a right to know how their tax contributions are utilized. However, findings have shown that representatives at the national assembly have formed the criminal habit of labeling those funded projects and social interventions by the federal government as their personal contributions to their respective constituencies while the opposite remains the case. In fact, in most cases, most items released by the issuing authorities end up in the open markets or to selected few sycophants within the constituencies.
Such fraudulent appellation, many have argued should not be allowed to continue since the funds for those projects are released by the Federal Government. The Federal Government spends N100billion yearly on claimed constituency projects nominated by members of the national assembly and supposedly spread across the 774 local government areas.
Several greedy members of the national assembly are on the list of those who turn government sponsored projects to look like their personal contributions to the people while in most cases, some of the gluttonous members negotiate behind the scene with other interested parties to either relocate those their allocated projects to other constituencies at an agreed amount or get it monetized right from the source in collaboration with thieving civil servants.
It is common to hear or watch shameless lawmakers distributing motorcycles and tokunbo vehicles to impoverished, selected members of their constituencies as their contribution to their welfare which in most cases, is just a deceitful mechanism for appreciation as the vehicles and motorcycles were already paid for by the Federal Government as part of constituency project.
A visit to most constituencies to assess constituency projects would definitely get most national lawmakers either to jail or made to refund of colossus sums earlier diverted for projects not executed.
The recent discovery of cases of malfeasance, diversion and corrupt practices associated with the execution, of constituency projects and the huge amount recovered in cash and assets from those who failed to carry out the purpose for which the funds were allocated and released, raged controversy between the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the House of Representatives members.
As part of a baseless defence mechanism to cover shame, enraged members of the House of Representatives had accused the ICPC of misleading and inciting the public against them by reportedly claiming that allocated N1trillion was made available for the various projects with no commensurate value added to the various constituencies, and that about N100billion was recovered in cash and assets by the commission in the course of probing the degree of execution of the various projects nationwide.
The House of Representatives contended that even if about N1trillion was approved as budgetary allocation for the various captured projects, the actual cash releases overtime felt short of that allocated amount, and that the ICPC has a responsibility to make the actual amount released public for posterity. Furthermore, the lawmakers stated that the amount recovered by the commission as declared in its report was N660million in both cash and assets and not N100billion as claimed.
In the views of many, the disagreement was entirely out of the point but meant to divert attention from the subject. The critical issue is that there has been an ongoing gross abuse of process and outright fraud in the execution of constituency projects, which is why substantial amounts of public funds were recovered from defaulting contractors and their collaborators in the legislature by the ICPC. For instance, majority of members of the House of Representatives for greed and corrupt purposes, registered companies to primarily corner constituency projects instead of through the conventional system of award to qualified contractors. In such situations, most of those companies owned by the lawmakers end up either abandoning the projects, poor execution or not executed at all but duly paid the whole.
Even if the amount recovered by the ICPC was N660million as claimed by the House of Representatives members, such a level of waste and misuse of resources is unwarranted and indefensible. The implication is that if ICPC had not undertaken the probe, the huge amount recovered would have likely been lost and the projects not executed and the people shortchanged with the stolen amount recycled for re-election in 2023.
What readily comes to the fore again is the need to urgently review the concept of constituency projects to either scrap it entirely or at least drastically modify the mode of its implementation. The lawmakers are elected primarily to make laws and perform oversight functions over the executive arm in performance not to initiate or execute contracts including constituency projects that was introduced primarily by former president Obasanjo for selfish interest against his then planned impeachment.
As it is today, the large sums allocated for constituency projects have become a ploy for unscrupulous national legislators in collaboration with unpatriotic and criminally-minded bureaucrats to fleece the public treasury through the award of frivolous contracts. Some those government agencies that serve as a drain-pipe of the lawmakers are the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and the Federal Ministry for Water Resources etc.
True or not, most national legislators are engaged in the dishonest exploitation of constituency projects for criminal diversion of public funds to the detriment of their constituencies while few are innocent and operating on the right track that can be exonerated from the scam by what they have provided in their constituencies. One doffs his hat for those sincere distinguished lawmakers because they have tried despite the odds and deserve commendation. In his unbelievable and unintelligent defence of the thieving lawmakers, spokesman of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu claimed that of the 373 projects visited by the ICPC, 255 were completed, 108 are ongoing while five are abandoned and only three were not started at all.
Agreed with his claim, if we are to believe him, how comes that as much as N660million in cash and property were recovered from the defaulting contractors? There is no point pretending that there is something fundamentally wrong with the current mechanism of executing constituency projects. Rather than creating separate budget heads for constituency projects that are nebulous and vulnerable to abuse, all projects across the country ought to be captured within the budgetary plans of the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), and executed in accordance with stipulated processes that guarantee transparency, efficiency and accountability.
The current system is open to abuse as is so obvious and such avenue for avoidable leakages must be eliminated in the interest of accelerated economic recovery and development. However, it is not enough to recover cash and assets from errant contractors; they must be made to face the wrath of the law along with their criminally-minded legislators and those shameless bureaucrats. The ball is now in the court of Mr. President if he has the genuine interest of defeating corruption.
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
