ICPC calls for increased citizens’ participation in projects execution

Project

Isaiah Eka

Uyo, March 17, 2020 (NAN) The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), has enjoined people in  Akwa Ibom to participate in the initiation, monitoring and execution of public projects in their communities.

Mr Shola Shodipo, Director of ICPC in the state made the call at the inauguration of an awareness campaign tagged: “My Constituency, My Project,’’ on Tuesday in Uyo.

Shodipo said the commission had continued to carry out sensitisation exercises to educate the people on the need for them to own and take responsibility in the execution of projects in their various communities.

He said the sensitisation was aimed at enlightening members of the public on their roles in the execution of projects by both the executive and legislative arms of governments.

“Our Public enlightenment effort centres on constituency and government projects in the communities and the role citizens have to play to make everyone benefit from the projects,’’ he said.

The ICPC official further explained that projects executed by government at various levels had to be tracked for the purposes of transparency and value addition.

“To this end, our drive is simply to stop graft in projects execution and as part of effort to fight corruption in different area of our national life.

“ICPC recently launched constituency projects tracking group and working with partners, went round 12 states of the Federation to track projects whose contracts had been budgeted for and awarded.

“The exercise revealed a lot of wrongdoings concerning how the contracts were carried out resulting in the people not benefiting from such projects.

“For this reason, you the beneficiaries need to show interest in selection, execution and use of such projects. In order words you need to take ownership of projects for sustainability’’, Sodipo said.

The State Director of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Eno Uyoh, said the programme put together in conjunction with NOA, was  to sensitise the public on the need to monitor public projects in the state.

Uyoh said all members of communities in the state had the  right to benefit from public projects, adding that people should take interest in the implementation of such projects from the beginning to end.

“You must get involved by monitoring and tracking of all the constituency projects located within your local areas and also ensuring that standards are maintained,’’he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that participants were drawn from various government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the media and community based organisations. (NAN)
IE/OMO/IU
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Edited by Martins Odeh and Isaac Ukpoju