TRANSPARENCY GROUP EXPOSES 460 DUPLICATED PROJECTS WORTH N378.9 BILLION IN 2022 BUDGET

BudgIT, a civic-tech non-profit organisation, says 460 projects amounting to N378.9 billion were duplicated in the 2022 budget.

Iyanu Fatoba, communications associate at BudgIT, disclosed this in a statement.

On December 31, 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the N17.13 trillion 2022 appropriation bill into law.

The presidency had submitted a proposed fiscal budget of N16.391 trillion to the national assembly, but the lawmakers later raised it to N17.127 trillion - an increase of N735.8 billion.

budgitng said it uncovered the discrepancies after examining the 21,108 capital projects in the budget.

"Our preliminary analysis of the 21,108 capital projects in the 2022 approved budget revealed. 460 duplicated projects amounting to N378.9 billion, the statement reads.

"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.

BudgIT also mentioned the occurrence of "inflated projects" amounting to billions of naira directly linked to the State House and the presidency.

It listed them to include N20.8 billion requested by the presidency to construct a 14-bed presidential wing at the existing State House Medical Center; N28.72 million requested for the purchase of two units of 10kg washing machine and six units of LG televisions in the State House, Lagos Liaison Office, among others.