Kaduna: CODE trains locals on monitoring constituency projects

From Sola Ojo, Kaduna

As part of its efforts to check corruption in public procurements in Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation focused on accountability, Connected Development (CODE), at the weekend trained selected locals to track 2020 and 2021 constituency projects, worth N6.4 billion in Kaduna State.

The locals were equipped as community monitoring teams (CMTs) to track constituency projects in Kaduna State, under the “Deepening Citizens’ Interest in Government Spending and Addressing Accompanying Corrupt Practices (DeSPAAC)” Project, which is supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

The Project Manager, Kinsley Agu, hinted at the opening of the training in Kaduna that the idea was to equip the CMTs with the needed skills and information to effectively track the projects at their levels.

Agu further explained that the CMTs consisted of community structures and existing follow-the-money champions with equitable representation of women and men in Kaduna State.

“A total of N6.4 billion was earmarked for constituency projects in Kaduna State by the Federal Government: N3.5 billion in 2020 and N2.9 billion in 2021,” he said.

Earlier, CODE’s monitoring and evaluation specialist, Onochie Mokwunye, noted that most of the constituency projects were planned and sited without input of the community members leading to duplication and wastage.