Nigeria’s Anti-graft Agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, is to investigate fraudulent procurement practices in the award of 712 government-funded projects in 20 states across the 6 geo-political zones.

This is Phase 5 of the Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Exercise, following the successful completion of the 4th phase earlier this year.

The 5th phase would commence on the 8th of November, 2022 in the following states; Kaduna, Jigawa, Sokoto, Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Kogi, Cross River, Delta, Rivers, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Borno, Bauchi, and Gombe States.

In a statement by the commission’s Spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua, the objective is to ensure that all government-funded projects are executed fully to their specifications and to make recoveries where the project costs are inflated by contractors or are poorly executed.

The Commission had in the 4th Phase of the exercise, successfully tracked 538 projects across 9 focal areas of Health, Education, Power, Water Resources, Works, Housing, Agriculture, Transport, and Environment.

Some of the findings from the Phase 4 exercise include the discovery of N7.1 billion worth of padded projects, some contractors who had abandoned projects sites being compelled to return to different sites to complete N10.9 billion worth of projects, while N6.8 billion worth of recoveries have been made so far.