The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Kogi State Office, has commenced tracking of 72 projects across the three senatorial districts of the state valued at N16,304,874,787.43.
ICPC pledged that the commission will recover monetary value of projects where work is not done at all and recommend immediate investigation where the work is criminally executed.
Mr David Oluwole Wale, an Assistant Commissioner who led a team of two operatives, vowed that every project to be tracked most meet the specification as contained in the bill of quantity.
He said where quality is compromised, contractors will be made to upgrade to the required standard.
“Projects across power, water, road, housing and empowerment programs have been penciled for this exercise. While empowerment seem to be the most difficult to track, the team is doing its utmost best to verify beneficiaries that participated and are empowered,” he said.
The exercise began in Lokoja, the state capital, on Tuesday with the tracking of the N6.2billion new federal secretariat complex project in Lokoja awarded in 2023 and the construction of an Inland River Port valued at N6.4B.
“The objective of the team is to ensure communities and constituents get the true value of projects cited in their localities and where value is compromised and contractors deliver a sub-standard job, such contractors are forced back to site to do the job according to standard,” he stated.
Mr David explained to the locals that the tracking exercise was in line with the ICPC mandate to ensure that all contracts awarded by the federal government are executed according to specification.
He encouraged the people in the communities to know that the project is theirs and they must take ownership of it.
Mr Ogunseemi Bayo, a quantity surveyor, is assisting the team in valuing cost and quality of job done on each site visited.
The tracking exercise will spread across the twenty one local government areas of the state.
