ICPC Discovers N5.6bn From Lawmakers.

 Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission under phase five of its ongoing tracking of constituency projects embarked upon by federal lawmakers says than 50 contractors, consultants, and staff members of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the government are being investigated in the phase five tracking report shared by the anti-graft agency on its verified X account.

The ICPC said, the exercise was carried out to investigate fraudulent procurement practices in the award of contracts for the Zonal Intervention Projects, otherwise known as constituency projects, executed under the 2019, 2020, and 2021 budget years during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the agency, about 200 bank accounts used for illegal deals on the projects were also frozen, while over N5.6bn was recovered as cumulative savings for the Federal Government during the exercise, while, in 2019, the agency initiated the tracking based upon the dissatisfaction of Nigerians with the delivery of the ZIPs in respect of which a minimum of N100bn had been budgeted since the year 2000.

Meanwhile, out of the N5.62 billion cumulative savings discovered in the report, N529.69m was cash recoveries, while, N1.55 billion was the value of recoveries in assets, and N3.54 billion was for the value of projects on which contractors returned to sites for work completion.

According to the report, the contract value of the tracked projects was N29.94 billion, but it was the sum of N25.17 billion that was said to have been paid to the various contractors handling the tracked projects as of the time the report was compiled.