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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has dispatched its officials to Bayelsa to probe alleged fraudulent procurement practices in the award of contracts covering Federal Government constituency and executive projects in the state.
Daily Sun learnt the anti-graft agency led by Mr. Livinus Idor would be tracking 1, 024 constituency and 227 executive projects in agriculture, education, power, health and water resources, among others, as captured in the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Appropriation Law of the Federal Government.
It was also gathered that the exercise would last between eight and 10 days and that the ICPC officials which arrived on Monday have already visited 16 solar-powered borehole water projects executed in some communities in Yenagoa/Kolokuma/Opokuma Federal Constituency of Bayelsa Central. They also tracked security infrastructure project at Federal Government Girls’ College, Imiringi, in Ogbia Federal Constituency of Bayelsa East. It was learnt that the team would visit project sites in the five federal constituencies and three senatorial districts of Bayelsa State.
The anti- graft agency is tracking similar projects in 17 states of the federation after being inundated with petitions alleging poor execution of the projects.
The first phase of the exercise conducted in 2019 involving 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory resulted in the tracking of 524 projects, while the second phase in 2020 had about 822 works tracked in 16 states.
One of the commission’s investigators, who would not want to be named, said the team in Bayelsa would not leave any stone unturned in the exercise.
“We have over 50 files of projects covering all the sectors that we will track in Bayelsa. The essence is that ICPC wants to ensure that contracts awarded and captured in the appropriation laws of 2019, 2020 and 2021 are carried out according to specifications and quality. Not only that, we want to see how functional they are.”
