Senate and unending controversy over constituency projects

TAIWO AMODU AND OSARETIN OSADEBAMWEN write on issues thrown up by the recent investigations of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) into the propriety or otherwise of constituency projects of members of the Senate.

SCANDALOUS revelations that followed investigations of constituency projects in 12 states by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in its pilot efforts to ensure that citizens derive maximal benefits from public fund expenditure in their interest has brought to the fore a renewed debate on the propriety of the executors of the projects.

Each senator enjoys the privilege of being allotted the sum of N200million for people-oriented projects that are supposed to close the gap of rural social-infrastructure needs and bolster their living conditions in his or her senatorial district. Allocation to each senator translates to N600 million per state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was about N21,800,000,000. This is the annual figure for the upper legislative chamber. The investigation by the ICPC was in conjunction with the Constituency Projects Tracking Group (CPTG).

Since the inception of the constituency project in 2000 where lawmakers infused into the annual national budget funds for projects or purchase of equipments for developmental projects as part of their deliveries of dividends of democracy to the people living in the rural areas. So far, lawmakers in the upper legislative house of the National Assembly were said to have expended between the sum of N1 trillion and N2trillion on varied constituency projects, even without anything to show for it in over 10 years.

President Muhammadu Buhari, recently, expressed his disappointment with the ugly development, even as he announced the establishment of a special court to prosecute cases of corruption. The president had declared: “It is on record that in the past 10 years, N1 trillion has been appropriated for constituency projects. Yet, the impact of such huge spending on the lives and welfare of ordinary Nigerians can hardly be seen.

“The first phase report of tracking these projects by the ICPC confirms our worst fears that people at the grassroots have not benefited in terms commensurate with the huge sums appropriated for constituency projects since inception. I invite the legislative and judicial arms of government to embrace and support the creation of Special Crimes Court that Nigerians have been agitating for to handle corruption cases. I, therefore, urge the legislature to fast-track the passage of the Special Crimes Court Bill.”

Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, however, dismissed the remarks of Buhari as he said the president might have been misled by his aides. Abaribe also reminded the president of the fact that constituency projects are executed by the executives.

He said: “I have done several constituency projects and we have always said that constituency projects are not executed by the senators or members of the House of Representatives. They are domiciled in the executive who executes it. And so, if the president says that he hasn’t seen anything, he should ask his ministers and his agencies under him as the executive because they are the people who have been executing these projects.”

Such a defence by the Senate Minority Leader would have sufficed when his position is juxtaposed with that of the president. However, the findings of the ICPC, in partnership with the CPTG, dismissed the position of Senator Abaribe as it revealed an alleged compromise between some senators and the executing agencies that were said to have colluded to rob the rural communities of the democratic packages promised them.

The president’s remarks at the National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in Public Sector, organised by the ICPC, in conjunction with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) in Abuja, was against the background of the scandalous outcomes from the investigations in which the anti-graft agency tracked many tractors and hospital equipments, which were said to have been procured outside the areas of their procurements, as authorised by the Acts of Parliament.

For instance, the ICPC claimed to have recovered six tractors, ambulances, dialysis machines and other hospital equipment from the sponsors of the projects across 12 pilot states in the first leg of the investigation. This was besides the fact many contractors, who abandoned projects, hurriedly returned to sites to work.

Recoveries so far made by the CPTG team included dialysis machine, ECG monitor, oxygen regulator, anaesthetic machines, generators and other hospital equipment meant for a cottage hospital in Ukana, Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, allegedly from the premises of the Mma Obot Foundation. Six tractors were also recovered in Bauchi, allegedly belonging to Senator Isa Missau who represented Bauchi Central Senatorial District from 2015 to 2019.

“In the effort to trace the tractors, Isa Misau, the then senator under whose auspices the project was included in the budget to be executed by the MDG office, met with officials of the ICPC in Bauchi and in a written statement claimed that the tractors were kept in Yuli Village. However, the CPTG team did not find any of the tractors there and some of the intended beneficiaries who were interviewed claimed not to have ever seen the tractors in the village as claimed by the senator.

“The senator, who was later contacted on the telephone by the CPTG team, to ascertain the actual location of the tractors, could not offer any positive explanation during the conversation. The CPTG team however gathered through intelligence that the tractors were being hurriedly moved to the headquarters of Ganjuwa Local Government Area and it then proceeded to the place to take custody of them,” the ICPC alleged.

This revelation may have consolidated the suspicion of many Nigerians that the vehemence with which lawmakers engaged the executive on constituency project may not be altogether out of love for their constituencies but for other curious reasons. The Federal Ministry of Works has had a long battle with the legislature in this regard. The present Minister of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashiola, had argued that the national budgets should address infrastructure challenges that are common to people across constituencies, local government areas and states, as against the balkanisation of such projects in such a manner that it became less impactful.

Fashola had argued: “When I was defending my budget, we didn’t discuss boreholes or primary health care centres. Now, I have hundreds of them in my budget. I have new roads that are state roads. I inherited over 200 roads when I became minister that we are trying to complete and even the right to add something must be in a context of our national development. We have reports from previous administrations that there are thousands of uncompleted projects in Nigeria. Those projects must affect constituencies and those are what we want to focus on and complete those that have started. Some of the roads don’t have a design.”

In the buildup to the passage of the 2019 budget for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the presidency was locked in a duel with the legislature over the insertion of constituency projects as the presidency resisted attempts to sustain constituency projects and had sought virement of monies allocated by the legislature for these project to fund the 2019 elections. But the legislature insisted there was sufficient fund in the service wide vote which had allocation of over N900 billion at the time. Fashola and his team had found more than 1000 constituency budget inserted in the budget with a cumulative allocation of over N22 billion.

In the opinion of most analysts, the executive/legislature quarrel over constituency project which, has been long, has obviously taken a new dimension with this findings by the ICPC.

Chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay, during his recent visit to the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, pointed out that the current public debate in the matter of constituency project was one that he would not want to join. However he urged Lawan to galvanise the critical legislative mass to make the budget items relevant in the lives of the people.

“All I want to plead is that you look into it and ensure that it is something of benefit to the constituents and constituencies of this country and not a subject of controversy anymore,” he said.