FG vows to prosecute corruption in social investment programme

From Magnus Eze, Enugu

The Federal Government has vowed to prosecute anyone found perpetrating any form of corruption in the implementation of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).

The NSIP was created by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2016 with the target of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years through a number of social interventions including the job creation programme – N-Power, National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCT), and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, who stated this in Enugu on Thursday, disclosed that the ministry was partnering with the anti-graft agencies to ensure that the implementation of the social investment programmes was not marred by corruption.

According to her, it was expedient to thoroughly monitor the programme at the grassroots given its scope of about 13 million beneficiaries across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Charles Anaelo, a Deputy Director who represented the minister said: “Today, we training independent monitors that will monitor the programme at the community level. The independent monitors will be assigned to monitor programme beneficiaries within their locality in schools, households, and market clusters with the focus of ensuring that the primary objectives of these programmes are achieved.

‘You will be closely supervised by officials of the ministry and your activities will also be monitored by the ministry and other stakeholders at the state level.

‘We are also working with security agencies like the DSS, the EFCC and the ICPC to monitor these programmes. If you are found engaging in any form of malpractice or fraud, you will be handed over to them for investigation and prosecution.’

Declaring the training workshop open, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi said his administration has continued to show commitment to ensure that the people of the state fully benefitted from the social interventions.

Represented by the state focal person, NSIP, Dr Innocent Ogbonna, the governor noted that Enugu was one of the first five states that ‘welcomed’ the social investment programmes of the federal government, adding that the state quickly keyed in and started benefitting in all of them.