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From Idu Jude, Abuja
In the face of persistent failures in public project execution across Nigeria’s 774 local government areas, Upnaija, a privately owned transparency organisation, has unveiled an innovative app that empowers citizens to track, verify and hold authorities accountable for project implementation at the federal, state and local levels.
Briefing the media on the need for the new application, the lead Information Technology (IT) expert to the organization, Mr. Samuel Chukwunonso, informed that the idea is to bridge the gap of non-availability of information to access the level of implementation of contracts awarded at various levels of government to promote transparency and accountability.
Further speaking, he said that the app was developed so that all contracts awarded by each administration are monitored till execution. “It is no longer news that Nigerians find it impossible to monitor the level of project implementation. And we have seen people interpret the implementation of projects in different ways. Sometimes we forget that these are taxpayers’ money that needs to be accounted for. Sometimes such projects are completed on the television screens and the pages of newspapers,” he said.
On the capacity of his app in monitoring the 774 local governments across Nigeria, Samuel highlighted that the organization uses human capital within the localities to drive its information and to update its data for the people to access. “Awards of contracts are public documents that are in the public domain.
We keep track of each such contract and monitor its level of implementation, and these are uploaded to our websites, which are connected to Google, so that every Nigerian can access the information through their cell phones. So we serve as a one-stop shop for project monitoring in Nigeria. Even Nigerians in the diaspora and foreigners alike can now monitor the level of execution of projects down here.
“Right now, for example, we have uploaded over 10,000 projects which can be accessed through the app. Lagos State has…”
On how the organization is funded, he said that it remains a nonprofit organization to get rid of the criminalities associated with contract awards and implementation. He said that it can make little profits when people visit the website to access the information.
He, however, said that the organization, to fulfill its promises, will remain independent of government officials to avoid financial inducement from anyone.
Head of Media in the organization, Henry Olukoya, added that the app has come to inform the layman of what the government is putting money into. “We are moving people away from the era of rumours about the government’s activities. Sometimes, when government works, it seems nothing is going on. So, we have credible and verifiable information about both completed and incomplete projects on the website. It is also a website where people can drop their comments to compare with what the government is saying about the particular project.”
