Funds Were Not Released For Duplicated Projects In 2021 Budget Uncovered By ICPC — DG Budget Office

*Says JAMB Not producing Surplus Revenue

Director-general of the budget office of the federation, Ben Akabueze, says funds were withheld for duplicated projects discovered by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Bolaji Owasanoye, chairman of the ICPC, had disclosed that 257 projects amounting to N20.138 billion were duplicated in the 2021 budget.

Owosanoye had said the commission tracked 1083 projects across the country with the exception of Borno and Zamfara states, owing to security challenges.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Friday, Akabueze said 54 out of the 295 projects were not duplications but only had description issues.

He said every project in the budget had a unique identifier, adding that funds were withheld for 185 projects that were indeed duplicated.

“The ICPC came up with a report, which they sent to us about duplicated projects that they found in the budget. We did our own review, we found that 54 of those projects were not actually duplications but they were issues with project descriptions” he said.

“This description made them look the same but they are not the same. Every project in the budget has a unique identifier.

“And which were found to indeed be duplicated, released funding was withheld from such a project. From the list we received from the ICPC, there are only 185 duplicated projects, 54 were not.”

He also said, “I need to clarify what exactly the situation is with respect to JAMB and my friend, Prof Oloyede has done an excellent job but first of all, it is not correct that JAMB is producing a surplus because when you say a surplus, it means you are producing over and above your revenue. JAMB’s cost for staff and all of those are still being paid for by government. And if you take the aggregate of the revenue compared to the aggregate of their cost, it is not a surplus.

“However, what has happened is that their cost having been borne by government, the revenues that they generate from their activities in the past, some individuals in the organisation would find a way of spending them on items that were not appropriated in the budget and (JAMB) put an end to that to say that government has borne our cost and if we generate this revenue, if we net out our cost that is directly attributable to the conduct of exams, the excess, the surplus over that which by government’s fiscal regulations is supposed to be remitted to the consolidated revenue fund, that we will make that remittance, that is basically what has happened.”