The Independent and Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) has disclosed how the 2020 and 2021 budgets were padded with an extra N400 billion by the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
The Chairman of the anti- graft agency, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, during an interface with the Senate Committee on Finance, also disclosed that project duplication worth N100bn were also inserted into the N17.12trn 2022 budget by some MDAs, including an N49.9bn tracked as salaries for ghost workers between January and June this year.
Owasanoye explained that the N300billion duplicated projects in the 2021 budget and N100billion in the 2022 budget were tracked through scrutinisation carried out on approved projects for the various MDAs.
The ICPC boss stated, “Three hundred billion naira would have been wasted by the Federal Government on duplicated projects inserted into the 2021 budget and N100billion for the same purpose in the current fiscal year, if not tracked and intercepted by ICPC.
“The same preemptive move saved the country from spending N49.9billion for salaries of ghost workers put on fictitious payrolls by the fraudulent MDAs between January and June this year.”
Owasanoye noted that the names of MDAs involved in project duplications were available and would be forwarded to the committee.
“The good thing about the preemptive moves made by us is that monies for the fraudulent acts were prevented from being released to the affected MDAs and it is gratifying that the Finance Ministry and Accountant General Office cooperated with us,” he said.
He advised relevant committees of the National Assembly to be on the lookout for such project duplication in the proposed N19.76trillion 2023 budget.
He added, “From our end, detection of such projects is done by verifying their locations and names upon which we tell the appropriate authorities not to release wrongly budgeted monies for them.”
The Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, who was delighted by the progress, said the operational cost of the agency would be increased from N1.8billion.
He added, “This committee is impressed by proactive ways your commission is adopting in the fight against corruption.
“Your submissions clearly show that all hope is not lost for our dear country as far as fighting corruption is concerned.
“Your operational cost, which is N1.8billion, will be increased as the required impetus for more proactive measures against corrupt practices across the various MDAs.”
