Over 400 projects worth about N400billion duplicated in 2022 budget – BudgIT

BudgIT, a civic-tech non-profit organisation, has said that 460 projects amounting to N378.9 billion were duplicated in the 2022 budget.

Iyanu Fatoba, communications associate at BudgIT, disclosed this in a statement recently.

He said BudgIT uncovered the discrepancies after examining the 21,108 capital projects in the budget.

The statement reads in part that “Our preliminary analysis of the 21,108 capital projects in the 2022 approved budget revealed 460 duplicated projects amounting to N378.9 billion.”

The statement further reads that “A cumulative total of N6.3billion was allocated to supplying street lights in 73 communities across the 36 states, while N14.8 billion was allocated for the construction of 219 roads across 36 states; whereas the majority of the roads are the responsibilities of state and local governments and not the federal government.”

Fatoba mentioned that some of the “inflated projects” amounting to billions of naira are directly linked to the State House and the presidency.

He listed some of the projects to include N20.8 billion requested by the presidency to construct a 14-bed presidential wing at the existing State House Medical Center; N28.72 million requested for the purchase of two units of 10kg washing machine and six units of LG televisions in the State House, Lagos Liaison Office, among others.

BudgIT also raised questions on the ministry of environment which has an allocation of N67.8 million to construct “gun armories” in Cross River, Kaduna, Borno and Yobe states, even though the ministry is not a security agency

It also said the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA) had metamorphosed into an agency that constructs roads and supplies street lights.

BudgIT however, described the duplicated projects as “loopholes for fraud”.

BudgIT stated that it is currently finalising its detailed analysis of the approved FG 2022 budget which would be presented to all stakeholders in the executive and legislative arm of government as well as the general citizens.

BudgIT also called on the Federal Government to prioritise projects that are of utmost benefit and exercise discipline in implementing duplicated and poorly costed projects in the 2022 budget.