The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has revealed that Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) padded the 2021 budget to the tune of N300 billion.
The padding which they did by duplicating projects shot the
budget to N13.59 trillion.
The MDAs also padded the 2022 budget with duplicated
projects amounting to N100 billion.
This shot the current year’s budget to N17.12 trillion.
This is aside from the N49.9 billion discovered as salaries
for ghost workers between January and June 2022, it says.
ICPC’s Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasannoye, made these known
in Abuja on Thursday.
He made the submissions at an interactive session with the
Senate Committee on Finance on the 2022-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework
and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
He said the ICPC discovered the project duplication and
budget padding for the two years during scrutiny of projects approved for the
various MDAs.
“Three hundred billion naira would have been wasted by the
Federal Government on duplicated projects inserted into the 2021 budget.
“Federal Government would have wasted another N100 billion
in the 2022 budget if not tracked and intercepted by the ICPC.
“The same pre-emptive move saved the country from spending
N49.9 billion on payment of salaries to ghost workers inserted into payrolls by
the fraudulent MDAs between January and June this year.
“Names of MDAs involved in projects duplication and
fictitious payrolls are available and will be forwarded to the committee,’’ he
said.
Owasannoye explained that ICPC’s interception ensured that
monies for the fraudulent acts were prevented from being released to the
affected MDAs.
“It is gratifying that the Federal Ministry of Finance and
the Accountant-General’s Office cooperated with us’,’’ he stressed.
The ICPC chairman advised relevant committees of the
National Assembly to look out for such project duplication in the proposed
N19.76 trillion 2023 budget.
“From our own 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,’’ he said.
In his remarks, chairman of the committee, Sen. Solomon
Adeola (APC-Lagos West), assured that ICPC’s operational cost would be
increased from the current N1.8 billion.
“This committee is impressed by the proactive ways your
commission has adopted in the fight against corruption.
“Your submissions clearly shows that all hopes are not lost
for our dear country as far as fighting corruption is concerned.
“Your operational cost which is N1.8 billion will be
increased as required impetus for more proactive measures against corrupt
practices across the various MDAs,’’ Sen. Adeola said.
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