A Pan-African NGO, Connected Development (CODE), and the Independence Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), have agreed to strengthen working synergy on tracking the delivery of constituency projects in Kaduna State.
CODE Team Lead in the State, Mr Abubakar Mohammed, said during a courtesy visit to the ICPC Commissioner in Kaduna on Thursday, that the synergy would ensure quality delivery of constituency projects in the state.
Mohammed explained that with support from MacArthur Foundation, CODE was tracking the delivery of constituency projects across the 23 local government areas of the state.
He said that the constituency projects were being tracked under a project tagged, “Deepening Citizens’ Interest in Government Spending and Addressing Accompanying Corrupt Practices (DeSPAAC)”.
According to him, DeSPAAC is designed to deepen citizens’ interest in government spending, which in the long run will curb corrupt practices associated with the implementation of constituency projects.
He explained that the objective of the visit was to strengthen collaboration between the commission and CODE’s Community Monitoring Teams (CMTs).
He said such a move would improve information sharing and working synergy to ensure that the government got value for money spent, while community members accessed quality services.
Earlier, Zaraphat Haruna, Project Assistant, CODE, had explained that the organisation was established in 2012 to empower marginalised communities to demand for quality goods and services from government.
Haruna said that CODE was achieving this by creating platforms for dialogue and building citizens’ capacity to hold their government accountable through its “Follow The Money” initiative.
Responding, the ICPC Resident Anti-corruption Commissioner, Mr Hassan Mohammed, said that the commission had taken the tracking of constituency projects, very seriously.
Mohammed said that the commission was working hard to ensure that people got the project they deserved from the government via constituency projects.
According to him, a stronger working synergy with CODE is critical to ensuring that citizens take interest in government spending, and ask questions for accountability and delivery of projects according to specifications.
He requested CODE to forward to ICPC, their findings on any constituency project delivered shoddily, abandoned, diverted, or poorly executed, for further investigations.
“It is important that we continue to collaborate with CODE to ensure that communities get what they deserve to improve their quality of lives,” he said.
