Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) said the Minister of Health under former president Goodluck Jonathan would be invited and interrogated over a petition on alleged diversion of N300 million constituency project for Zamfara State.
ICPC’s Director Public Enlightenment, Rashidat Okoduwa, who made the disclosure after receiving petition the written to the commission to investigate the former minister over the alleged diversion of funds.
The petition written by an NGO, Health, Safety and Environment Charity Initiative, on behalf of Zamfara central community, pleaded with the commission to undertake thorough investigation.
“We want to bring to the notice of your commission of the diversion of N300 million 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 and 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, the former Minister of Health that served from 2011 to 2014, in connivance with the former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health allegedly diverted the money.
In view of the above and in 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 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 commit or have committed since June 2000 when the law was signed, it falls under the purview must be investigated and bring offenders to book when necessary. We will look into the petition as soon as possible and you will get a feed back.
On joining the petition with the constituency projects the commission is tracking, she said: “It is a good thing that the petition came at this period we have a committee set up in April to track constituency projects.
“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.
“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 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 of timeline. Be rest assured that this will be looked into.
“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 it 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.