The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission has launched an investigation into fraudulent procurement practices in the award of contracts for constituency and executive projects in 16 states of the federation.
They are Rivers, Delta, Cross River, Taraba, Ekiti, Ogun, Gombe, Nasarawa, Kebbi, and Kwara.
Others are Jigawa, Abia, Ebonyi, Niger, Oyo, and Kaduna States.
The ICPC spokesperson, Rasheedat Okoduwa, disclosed in Abuja, on Monday, that the exercise would focus on projects relating to health, education, water resources, agriculture, and power.
She said, “Some of the objectives of the tracking are to investigate fraudulent procurement practices in the award of contracts for the constituency and executive projects, and make recoveries on projects or contracts confirmed to have been inflated, or in which contractors under-performed, or did not perform at all.”
The exercise would also track contracting companies for compliance.
Okoduwa said the anti-graft agency was undertaking the inquiry owing to the success of the first phase that held in 12 states last year.
She added, “The commission, in 2019, launched the pilot phase of the exercise in which it tracked projects’ performance from 2015 to 2019 in 12 states.
“Successes of the exercise included the recoveries of tractors, ambulances, dialysis machines, and other hospital equipment from sponsors of the projects across the pilot states.
