Take ownership of constituency projects – ICPC, NOA tell citizens

Take ownership of constituency projects – ICPC, NOA tell citizens

By Martha Nyam

Jos, March 17, 2020 (NAN) The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) on Tuesday advised citizens in Plateau to take ownership of constituency projects for sustainability.

The Chairman of the commission, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, gave the advice  in Jos during  a Town Hall meeting organised by the ICPC in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA).

It had its theme as : “My constituency, My project’’.

Owasanoye said the campaign which was launched in November 2019 was aimed  at stopping corruption and tracking projects to see if they were done satisfactorily.

“You need to take ownership of the projects for sustainability in the long term, constituency and other projects are funded by government with public money.

“They are not gifts or donations to your community by political representatives, they belong to you as fruits of national resources and government responsibility to the people.

“In our drive to stop corruption in projects executed by government, ICPC launched this campaign to track projects to see if they were executed and if they were done satisfactorily,” he said.

He said that the exercise had led to the recovery of equipment and machinery meant for the benefit of the people and had also recovered money for the government from those who did not execute projects, under-performed or inflated the cost of projects.

Owasanoye urged citizens to get involved and follow up projects approved for their respective communities, adding that citizens should report suspected representatives when they were being shortchanged and denied of their rights.

The Director-General, NOA, Dr Garba Abari, in a speech, said that when communities took ownership of projects, there would be genuine interest to preserve and protect them.

Abari said that it would also ensure that contractors who were eager to maximise profits, executed the projects to the highest standards required.

According to him, it is  imperative that a new template for implementing the constituency projects be adopted, adding that the template under the new partnership between NOA and ICPC will  make the people own the entire process from conception to execution.

He added that it was only through the new template that the aim of bringing government to the grassroots would be achieved.

The Chairman, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Plateau  Chapter, Mr Ezekiel Pabut, in an address described the meeting as significant and timely.

Pabut said that the project would give citizens a platform to assess the performance of representatives and point out gray areas which  needed  improvement.

He added that local government chairmen in the state were working hard to ensure that they provided facilities that would better the lives of their community members. (NAN)

ADY/VIV/AMY

Editing  by Vivian Ihechu and Abdullahi Yusuf