The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has called for the handover of constituency projects to local government authorities after completion.

This is to ensure ownership by beneficiaries as well as for effective maintenance and sustainability.

Chairman of the commission, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, stated this at a media roundtable in Abuja, according to a statement by the ICPC spokesperson, Mrs Rasheedat Okoduwa.

He said: “If somebody had nominated a project and succeeded in getting the project to the community, it is not the duty of the person to maintain it”.

“Communities need to understand that it was public funds that was used. They need to take ownership. We recommend that the project needs to be handed over to the local government for the community to take over.”

He said a lot of those projects completed were executed in “shoddy ways due to poor technical designs, impositions and other sundry irregularities”.

He stressed that the commission would not give up on tracking of constituency projects as long as government kept funding them.

Owasanoye, therefore, called on local communities to demand accountability and transparency in project award and execution.

He said that only about 60 per cent of constituency projects had been completed across the country.

The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, Dr Garba Abari, who was also at the round table called for citizens’ participation in constituency projects.

Abari noted that the active involvement of the communities in planning and execution of constituency projects would remove the issues of corruption and abuse.

He stressed that such ownership would ensure that contractors did not use substandard materials for the projects as well as ensure that completed projects were not vandalized. (NAN)