A civic-tech organisation, BudgIT Nigeria, on Monday, announced its discovery of 460 duplicated projects valued at N378.9bn in the 2022 Appropriation Act, accusing the National Assembly of padding the Federal Government’s budget, among other allegations.
The National Assembly, on Monday kept mum on BudgIT announcement of its discovery of 460 duplicated projects valued at N378.9bn in the 2022 Appropriation Act, accusing the legislature of padding the Federal Government’s budget, among other allegations.
The organisation called on the citizens, civil society organisations, the private sector and the international community to “urgently prevail on the National Assembly and Presidency to urgently amend and eliminate the loopholes in FG’s 2022 approved budget”.
It raised the alarm in a statement signed by its Communications Associate, Iyanu Fatoba, and issued via its Twitter handle.
BudgIT said, “Our preliminary analysis of the 21,108 capital projects in the 2022 approved budget revealed 460 duplicated projects amounting to N378.9bn. Recall that BudgIT observed 316 duplicated projects inserted into the 2021 FG budget approved by NASS.
“ICPC verified 257 duplications, while the Budget Office confirmed the existence of only 185 duplicated projects worth N20.13bn, after which it informed the public that funds were not released for the projects in 2021.
According to the organisation, the occurrence of inflated projects amounting to billions of naira directly linked to the State House and the Presidency is a cause for concern.
