The Connected Development (CODE), an NGO, said it developed a tool to score the implementation of constituency projects selected by federal lawmakers in Kaduna State.

CODE’s Team Lead in the state, Mr Abubakar Mohammed, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Monday.

Mohammed explained that the scorecard would score the lawmakers’ delivery of the project, in terms of community involvement, needs assessment, as well as the quality and timely delivery of the projects.

He said that the assessment would be done across all the constituency projects selected by the Senators and the House of Representatives members involved in the projects.

He said that interactions with beneficiaries of some of the projects showed that while some were delivered according to the expected standards, others were delivered below quality.

“The scorecard, will, therefore, help the lawmakers to know the projects that were delivered according to a minimum standard and the projects that were badly executed.

“The scorecard will enable the lawmakers to interact with community members, nominate constituency projects that meet the needs of the communities, get their buy-in and ensure sustainability,” he said.

He explained that CODE was currently tracking the implementation of 118 constituency projects worth N6.4 billion across the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Kaduna State.

He said the tracking, with support from MacArthur Foundation, was under the “Deepening Citizens’ Interest in Government Spending and Addressing Accompanying Corrupt Practices (DeSPAAC)” project.

He said that CODE had recently conducted community outreach to interact with community members on their perception of the implementation of constituency projects in their communities.

Mohammed said most of the communities complained that they were not consulted to determine their needs, adding that they just noticed a project being implemented in their communities.

“During our community outreach, members of Unguwan Pah 1, a community in Jema’a LGA, Kaduna South Senatorial District, said that the construction of a hand pump borehole in the community was done without their buy-in.

“The community members said that even when they indicated interest to monitor the delivery of their project, they were threatened to stay away, or it would be relocated to another community.

“In Agalawa community of Ikara LGA, Kaduna North Senatorial District, the community members also said that the construction of one block of classrooms was done without their input.

“The story was no different in Kaduna Central Senatorial District where some of the community members said that they were not consulted in the planning and implementation of the projects,” he said.

He called on the lawmakers to engage community members to agree on projects that would meet their needs.

This, according to him, would encourage community participation in the implementation of the projects and ensure sustainability.