Probe 65,000 abandoned projects, Reps charge EFCC

November 17th, 2024

It’s been disclosed by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts that approximately 65,000 projects worth N32tn are abandoned nationwide.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, however, has asked to act on the report it would send to it after the conclusion of its assignment.

This was revealed by the committee chairman, Bamidele Salam, during a visit to the Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede.

He said, “Our records show that we have about 65,000 abandoned projects littered all over the country.

“An organisation that evaluated them put the amount tied to the projects at N32tn. Some of them are key infrastructure projects; some of them have been paid for 100 per cent.

“Some of them are funded with loans. We are very bothered about this and we are initiating steps to ensure that we look into some of these abandoned projects.

“As we gather more information, conclude our investigations, and submit them to the plenary, the House will forward them to the EFCC and other law enforcement agencies to take further action.”

To ensure probity and accountability in public finances, Bamidele said the House had to give the Audit Bill expedited hearing and passage and transmit to the Senate for concurrence.

He said, “What the Audit Bill will do is to ensure that the Office of the Auditor General is empowered, not only with more resources but the capacity to prevent financial crimes, corruption, and violation of compliance from happening.

“If we are able to do more prevention, your own burden too in the EFCC would be less.

“So, we are working to ensure that we have the Audit Bill passed in a manner that would strengthen that office and ensure that we have more preventive measures.”

Reacting to this, the chairman of EFCC, Olukoyede urged the legislature to ensure that stringent laws are made against corruption, and economic and financial crimes.

The EFCC boss said, “I believe in the power of the legislative arm of the government. Can we get to the point where we can say enough is enough?

“Are you ready to give us a law that says if we discover that you are living above your means of livelihood without asking me to prove it beyond reasonable doubt, that it is deemed that you have stolen money and we take it away from you as proceeds of crime?

“Are we ready to say that those who have been indicted for corrupt practices still sitting on the Bench can no longer be tolerated?”

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