The House of Representatives has resolved to probe project duplication accusations in the N20.138 billion budget for 2021. The House has established an ad hoc committee to look into allegations about the 257 projects in the 2021 budget that were duplicated, as Bolaji Owasanoye, Chairman of the Independent and Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) said.
ICPC uncovered the duplicated projects when scrutinizing the 2021 budget, according to the anti-graft chief.
This was the result of a motion made by Dachung Bagos (PDP, Plateau) at the plenary on Thursday.
In his motion, Mr. Bagos charged all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) with high-level corruption, including payroll padding and the retention of “ghost employees.”
He also called for an investigation of all MDAs’ nominal rolls in the country.
Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta), the minority leader, proposed that the House’s standing committees investigate the issue.
The Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, responded to the Minority Leader’s submission by saying that the ICPC’s claim is an indictment of the House Committees that examined the 2021 budget.
If the ICPC’s claims are genuine, he believes the standing committees should not be involved in the probe.
“Are you (Mr. Elumelu) asking the committees to complete the work that should have been done in the budget we passed for 2021″Are you aware of how disrespectful it is to our committees?”
“If 257 projects were duplicated, that means we didn’t do our job properly.” I’m not convinced that the task should be done by the committees that initially dropped the ball. This task, in my opinion, should be handled by an ad hoc group.”
Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives stated that the committee can contact the ICPC to obtain a copy of the report on duplication projects to verify the claim.
Concerning the nominal rolls, the House decided that the Anti-Corruption and Public Service Committees should look into nominal rolls, payroll padding, and false employment in all MDAs.
Toby Okechuku (PDP, Enugu), the deputy minority leader, also proposed an alternative requiring the committee to scrutinize all job waivers granted by the Head of Service Office.
When the proposition was put to a vote, it was approved as amended.