Budget Padding: N2Trillion Reportedly Spent On Constituency Projects In Nigeria From 2003 To Date
This revelation comes amid nationwide controversy over the alleged padding of the 2024 budget to the tune of N3.7 trillion by senators under the leadership of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
At least N2 trillion has been reportedly spent on constituency projects from 2003 to date, with between N95 billion and N100 billion allocated to projects every year and shared among the 469 members of the National Assembly.
This revelation comes amid nationwide controversy over the alleged padding of the 2024 budget to the tune of N3.7 trillion by senators under the leadership of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Constituency projects, also known as Special Intervention Projects (SIP), came into existence 21 years ago when senators and members of the House of Representatives “compelled” the Executive arm of the government to insert the projects into Nigeria’s yearly budget.
Constituency projects reportedly with a yearly budget of N100 billion, were established by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration with the hope of bringing government closer to the people, especially those in the rural areas.
It was never designed for lawmakers to determine directly what projects should go to their constituents or to be the ones who should provide contractors; hence, it was agreed that the Nigerian government should set aside a huge sum of money to finance constituency projects and ensure implementation through the Office of the Special Adviser on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in agreement with lawmakers.
However, Vanguard Newspaper reports that at least N2 trillion has been spent on constituency projects from 2003 to date.
Meanwhile, many of the awarded constituency projects across Nigeria have not started, been abandoned or named but are not in existence.
It was reported that in sharing the constituency projects funds, the lawmakers consider ranking like in the Senate where there are two presiding officers, the President of the Senate and the Deputy Senate President, and eight principal officers including Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip.
All the principal officers who are also regarded as “senior” senators get a higher share of the funds than ordinary members.
It was gathered that while presiding and principal officers could get N500 million and above, no senator gets less than N200 million, especially those who have been around and not principal officers.
This was confirmed last week by the Senator representing Cross River North Senatorial District on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, on the Senate floor amid the 2024 budget padding allegation.
Senator Jarigbe alleged that “senior” senators got N500 million each in the 2024 Budget for constituency projects while some other senators including Senator Tony Nwoye of the Labour Party from Anambra State confirmed that they got N250 million for constituency projects.
Obasanjo once described the allocation of funds to federal lawmakers for constituency projects as nothing but corruption, saying, “You and I know what constituency project means, it is simply corruption.”
Former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 toed the same path when he said the impact of the trillions of naira voted for constituency projects could hardly be seen in the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
In April 2022, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) issued a report on how National Assembly members were diverting funds for constituency projects.
The ICPC alleged that senators diverted money meant for their senatorial districts to non-existing projects, thereby denying their constituents the expected benefits.
The anti-graft agency said it uncovered how the National Assembly illegally added N20 billion to N100 billion annual constituency projects.
The ICPC, in its ‘interim constituency and executive projects tracking report’, revealed how the National Assembly embedded additional projects into the 2021 mandate budget of MDAs, which, in a long way, affected budget performance, as well as distorted developmental planning and implementation of the 2021 fiscal year.
In the report, the ICPC cited other areas of infractions where lawmakers allegedly awarded contracts to themselves, children or to proxy companies.
The report read: “Budget insertion remains one of the egregious, yet illegally acceptable phenomenon that has distorted the nation’s developmental planning and implementation of developmental programmes.
“In addition to the N100 billion appropriated annually for constituency projects, the National Assembly embedded additional projects into mandate budgets of MDAs. This is done to increase the project portfolios of concerned legislators and their influence on MDAs. The value of the insertion was in billions.”
The report said the 2021 national budget had duplications in projects “to the tune of over N20 billion,” cutting across key sectors of education, water resources, health, power, science and technology, environment, works and agriculture.
The report pointed out that the “contract for the construction and renovation of blocks of the classroom at a University Staff School in Taraba executed by a company owned and operated directly by a lawmaker”, a project ICPC alleged was “haphazardly nominated, appropriated and executed in locations that have no need for such projects.”
The anti-corruption agency also alleged another contract infraction in the supply of water rigs by a particular company to be executed in Taraba.
The commission alleged that “just two days after the award of the contract, ‘the said company’, wrote to the executing agency, Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority, informing it that it was involved in some sort of arrangements with its sister company in respect of the execution and requested that the contract sum should be paid into the bank account of the company owned by the sponsoring legislator.
“Funding was, therefore, made to the said company owned by the sponsoring legislator.”
In the report, the ICPC revealed that it was able to track a contract for the supply of 686 water pumping machines to Kebbi awarded to a particular company owned by the children of a lawmaker.
The report read: “Various other projects were awarded and executed in Kebbi by three other companies owned and operated by the biological children of the sponsor.”
Similarly, the ICPC said that it was able to track the project for the supply of 19 units of 500KVA transformer to Delta State, two of which “were stolen and sold by an aide of the sponsoring lawmaker, while one was found kept in a private house since 2018”.
The commission also cited the project valued at N149m for the training and empowerment of women and youths in Abaji allegedly awarded to a relative of the sponsoring legislator.
It was also replicated in Katsina where the sponsor single-handedly executed the contract after which the project said to have been valued at N49 million was changed from its form and devalued by the lawmaker.
In another case, the supply of tricycles to Rivers State was an empowerment project where the sponsor allegedly used one of her cronies as the contractor.
ICPC alleged that “while the contract was never performed, the sum (N30m) was fully paid and shared”.
The agency also revealed that some sponsoring legislators sometimes site projects on personal properties, which technically vests legal possession and ownership to them.
An example was cited of the diversion of funds for an agricultural empowerment project in Osun State to a training programme on cattle rearing and the actual supply of cattle.
