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Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) has promised to invite and interrogate the Minister of Health under former president Goodluck Jonathan, over a petition for diversion of N300 million constituency project for Zamfara state.
ICPC Director Public Enlightenment, Rashidat Okoduwa, who made the promise after receiving to the petition written to the anti-corruption commission to investigate the minister in charge then over the diverted funds.
The petition which was written by an NGO, Health, Safety and Environment Charity Initiative, on behalf of Zamfara Central community, pleaded with the commission to undertake a thorough investigation.
“We want to bring to the notice of your commission of the diversion of N300m meant for the procurement of health care facilities at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Gusau, Zamfara State.
“The said procurement was a constituency project of Senator Kabir Garba Marafa for the benefit of his constituency. The project was captured in the 2013 budget; the money was released by the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Health since 2013. All available records indicate that all necessary funds were released.
“We are very surprised to discover that the project was not executed in Federal Medical Centre, Gusau, despite the release of the N300 million to the Federal Ministry of Health. From available records we have, the former Minister of Health that served from 2011 to 2014, in connivance with the former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health had diverted the money.
In view of the above, and in the light of the verifiable evidence we shall tender, we seek your intervention to kindly investigate the circumstances surrounding the diversion of the funds meant for the good people of Zamfara State with a view to righting the wrongs by ensuring full execution of the proposed project in FMC Gusau, Zamfara State, to the benefit of the citizenry,” he said.
Responding to the petition, the ICPC spokesperson, said: “Let me thank you for the step you have taken by coming to formally make a complaint to the statutory body established to look into such matters.”
“Now that you have submitted your petition, we assure you that we shall look into it because any offence anybody commits or has committed since June 2000 when the law was signed which falls under the purview must be investigated and offenders brought to book when necessary.
“We will look into the petition as soon as possible and you will get a feedback.
“It is a good thing that the petition came at this period we have a committee set up in April to track constituency project.
“The committee picked the constituency project they are going to examine between 2015 and 2018 especially the projects funded by the government without the influence of the ICPC chairman.
“On how this one fits into it, I want to say that ordinarily, ICPC will look into any petition on anything regarding corruption whether it is constituency project or any other more so when it now fits into the format or framework of the constituency we are tracking.
“This petition will definitely get some action because it fits into the framework even though it is out of the framework in terms timeline. Be rest assured that this will be looked into,” she assured.
“Without prejudice to the other ones, every petition deserves to be looked into. But usually because of capacity constraints in terms manpower and others, we may not look into the petition the very minute it hits our table, but be assured that we will be looked into. I cannot give you a timeline but definitely because we are already involved in constituency tracking, it might hasten the timeline for this,” she promised.
