Ex-senator Shehu Sani, FTP boss, Omokungbe call for national project management agency

Abuja, Nigeria

Shehu Sani, a former senator and the founder of FollowTheProjects (FTP), Daisi Omokungbe has called for the establishment of an agency to oversee all federal government projects.

This they said would help the country to achieve accountability, reduce abandonment of projects, deal with fake and substandard materials used by contractors, and help to achieve value for money in all government projects.

The duo participated as panellists at the BudgIT official launch of Tracka’s report titled: “Creating Awareness, Tracking Public Projects, Catalysing Communities Impact in Trying Times” in Abuja on Tuesday.

The report is the analysis of Tracka’s work on zonal intervention projects also known as “Constituency Projects” and Federal consolidated projects.

Issues such as projects with unspecified locations, abandoned projects, diversion and payment of ZIP cash grants by hand instead of bank transfers, and inflated contracts among others are contained in the report.

“This is a dangerous trend in the management of public projects in Nigeria.”

“Nomination of constituency projects without needs assessment will always result in this kind of trend.”

“We must put a stop to the practice of ‘budget of the rich, by the rich and for the rich”, Mr Omokungbe said.

He also emphasised the need for legislators to proactively carry out their oversight function after nominating their projects based on community needs monitored by civil society organisations (CSOs) and the media.

Mr Sanni noted that there is a need for an agency to manage all zonal intervention projects across the country.

Mr Omokungbe added that the establishment of the agency to monitor, regulate, verify and evaluate, and issue certificates of completion to contractors upon delivery of all federal government projects would improve citizens’ standard of life and fiscal accountability.