The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, on Thursday, revealed that the N13.59trillion 2021 budget was padded by the various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, with duplicated projects worth N300bn.
The Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, also disclosed that project duplication worth N100bn was also inserted into the N17.12trn 2022 budget by some MDAs, including an N49.9bn tracked as salaries for ghost workers between January and June this year.
All these disclosures were made during an interface with the Senate Committee on Finance.
Owasanoye explained that the N300billion duplicated projects in the 2021 budget and N100billion in the 2022 budget were tracked through scrutinization carried out on approved projects for the various MDAs.
The ICPC boss stated, “Three hundred billion nairas would have been wasted by the Federal Government on duplicated projects inserted into the 2021 budget and N100billion for the same purpose in the current fiscal year, if not tracked and intercepted by ICPC.
“The same preemptive move saved the country from spending N49.9billion for salaries of ghost workers put on fictitious payrolls by the fraudulent MDAs between January and June this year.”
Owasanoye noted that the names of MDAs involved in project duplications were available and would be forwarded to the committee.
