Corrupt Officials Will No Longer Use Our Scarce Resources To Build Fake Projects–FG

The Federal Government on Monday said that it will no longer allow the little resources at its disposal to be used by corrupt officials to build fake projects.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha stated this in a speech delivered at the 3rd National summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public sector in Abuja.

The event was organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission with the theme: “Corruption and Cost Of Governance New Imperative For Fiscal Transparency.”

Mustapha said, “Systemic corruption prevents government from maximizing its potential of providing good governance for the people with available little resources especially at this time of Covid-19 pandemic.

“Government is highly worried that about 60 per cent of Federal Government’s Overhead Expenditure in three years (2012 to 2014) was spent on travels, maintenance, local and international training, welfare, office stationery / consumables, honoraria etc.

“Recent data from the Budget Office indicates that actual MDAs recurrent spending is still on the rise viz. from N3.61trn in 2015 to N5.26trn in 2018 and N7.91trn in 2020.”

“President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration, has, therefore, been unrelenting in making sure that our little resources will no longer be budgeted and/or used for frivolities, hidden in fake projects, unnecessary travel, wasteful overhead costs, meaningless capital projects and remuneration of ghost workers.

“We also remain focused on getting back our resources that have found their ways into the private pockets of those who fraudulently orchestrate the budget process for their selfish desires.”

As a government, Mustapha said the concerns have always been to continuously reflect and take measures to mitigate the negative consequences of unrestrained cost of governance.

“It is increasingly becoming public knowledge that our anti-corruption agencies, especially ICPC, are doing a lot in the area of prevention and also recovery of diverted or stolen public funds, building the capacity of MDAs to resist corrupt practices, promoting ethical values through the National Ethics and Integrity Policy of government.

“Some of the capacity building measures include System Study and Review of operations of MDAs; Corruption Risk Assessment and the establishment of Anti-corruption Monitoring Units in all MDAs.

“Recoveries of public funds in recent years have no doubt demonstrated the strong resolve government to stem financial hemorrhages and promote initiatives towards curbing illicit financial flows,” he added.