ICPC to sanction contractors over shoddy constituency projects

By Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado Ekiti

The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) has said it would sanction contractors who failed to execute constituency projects of National Assembly members across Ekiti State to specification.

ICPC Chief Superintendent in charge of tracking programmes in Ekiti State, Azeez Lawal, lamented that some of the constituency projects in Ekiti were not properly done, saying erring contractors would face prosecution or return to site.

Lawal, who spoke in Ado Ekiti after assessment of constituency projects undertaken in Ikere and Ekiti-South West council areas, said, “What we saw so far, some of the jobs were well done, some were not properly done and such is not encouraging.”

According to him, the aim of the ongoing second phase of tracking of the National Assembly members’ constituency projects for 2016, 2017 and 2018 going on across the country “is to know if these jobs are being done, if they are/were properly done, if they were not done at all, or if there are infractions.

“If there are infractions, the contractors will face the wrath of the law. The lawmakers involved will be liable if they are found wanting as well. We will write our reports and the decision on appropriate sanction will be taken by the ICPC management. It is either they tell the contractors to go back to the site or they will be taken to the courts for prosecution,” Lawal said.

The ICPC personnel, who advised contractors to always do their jobs as prescribed to avoid being prosecuted, also charged residents to take ownership of the constituency projects in their areas by availing the anti-graft agency of information about them.

He said, “The communities are to help to give us information if those things that are supposed to be in their areas and are not there. If they know that they are supposed to have water, roads, drainage projects etc, if they know a project which is supposed to be done or not done properly, they should get across to us. We are encouraging them to write to us.

“You recall that we had the phase one of the exercise last year, what we observed was that some contractors were to go back to site. We discovered that the jobs were not properly done, some were not done at all, some politicians put these things that are supposed to be for empowerment in their houses – hospital equipment, farming equipment, tractors, were found in their houses.”