774,000 special works programme should be totally free of fraud, Buhari warns Keyamo, NDE DG

As the registration for the 774000 Special Public Works Programme begins across the Federation on Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that the N52 billion project should be free of fraud.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, on Thursday, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, and the Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Dr Mohammed Nasir Ladan, said every arrangement has been concluded and the Programme is set to commence.

“We are set to go,” they said, adding that the list of beneficiaries in all the 774 local governments have already been compiled and imputed in the system.

However, Keyamo said President Buhari has warned them that the programme should be free from fraud, while they should also use technology to monitor performance and effective implementation of the programme.

The Minister of State pointed out that President Buhari had given them directive that the programme, should be totally free of fraud.

Keyamo said: “There will be implementation committees at different levels, they will supervise the work, they will work closely with the banks and select projects to be done.

“We don’t want to give people money and sit down here in Abuja and assume community services are going on everywhere. We are going to have actual people on the ground.

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“Mr President has given a directive that this programme should be totally free of fraud, everybody will be paid by his bank account and BVN. You can’t be paid twice, biometrics will be taken by the banks to ensure you don’t have two different accounts. He directed that we should use technology to monitor the process.”

The minister added: “Right here in Abuja, between the DGs office and my office, we are going to create an interactive website which will be such that you’ll have the all the names of the implementation committees’ members there so people can easily reach them on their phone numbers in different states.

“Projects that will be done in different local governments will be uploaded. People can see the projects to be carried out.”

Also speaking, the NDE director-general said N52 billion has been earmarked for the programme and the money is in the process of being released by the Federal Government.

He explained that N46.6 billion of the fund is meant for the payment of the stipend, while others will be used for logistics, ITC, transportation, printing, provision of working tools and others.

Dr Ladan added that over 90 per cent of the money will go for the payment of their stipends.

According to him, “for the implementation, we have four state implementation committees and then we have three local government monitoring committees in each of the local governments. Money has been budgeted for their payment. This is to make sure that the list presented is well documented.

“We are going to use them in terms of identifying the possible intervention or projects sites that are to be carried out in each of the 774 local governments.

“We have forms, and they have special security features. As we have earlier said, nobody will have access to these forms except those engaged in the exercise.

“Nobody is leaving his unit or ward, the banks will send in their people for registration. The time frame we want to do this is from tomorrow (Friday) to 11 September. By then, we expect everything to be completed. Once we have done this, we are set to go.

“As far as I am concerned, the issue of special public works, we are fully ready. And we believe the set date of October 1 to us is a reality.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

774000 special works programme