We have recovered N41bn from Federal MDA’s ― ICPC

The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) has said the commission has recovered N41bn from Federal Ministries and Department Agencies (MDA’s) over inflated cost.

This was disclosed by the representative Head of ICPC, Mannir Mohammed at a roundtable discussion titled ‘Opening Contracting Stakeholders Engagement’ in Kaduna organised by the Public and Private Development Center (PPDC) on Thursday.

He said the commission last year carried out a system study of 201 MDA’s to study the procurement process as well as the personnel cost of each of the MDA’s.

‘What we discovered was amazing as these MDA’s manipulate the system by inflating the manual roll and personal cost. In fact, we recovered N41bn from this process.

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In one the MDA’s the personnel cost was inflated to over N600m, he declared.

According to Mohammed with the introduction of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) the system has helped in blocking the leakages and most of the MDA’s are not happy.

‘It is the reason why some MDA’s are still foot dragging over the IPPS. The only thing that is left for the MDA’s now it to inflate the capital projects.

The ICPC representative noted that most MDA’s now inflate capital projects, saying, this is another challenge that need to be addressed.

Mohammed lamented further that fighting corruption is a herculean task and the commission has an acute shortage of staff to execute its mandate, saying, we are less than 1,000 staff and we are mandated to be everywhere.

However, he said attempt is being made by the present management to open zonal offices across the country.