ICPC alleges N2.67bn school feeding funds was in private accounts

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has alleged that it has discovered N2.67 billion meant for the school feeding programme in private accounts.
Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, the Chairman of ICPC, speaking at the second National Summit on diminishing corruption in the public sector in Abuja, said the agency also found over N2.5 billion diverted by a deceased worker with the Ministry of Agriculture, noting that 18 buildings, 12 business premises, and 25 plots of land, were also recovered in the ministry.
The summit themed, ‘Together against corruption’, was organised in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation, and included the launch of the National Ethics and Integrity Policy.
Owasanoye said under the Open Treasury Portal review carried out between January to August 15, 2020, 72 out of 268 ministries, departments, and agencies had cumulative infractions of N90 million.
He said while 33 MDAs tendered explanations that N4.1 billion was transferred to sub-Treasury Single Account, N4.2b paid to individuals had no satisfactory explanations.
“We observed that transfers to sub-TSA were to prevent disbursement from being monitored. Nevertheless, we discovered payments to some federal colleges for school feeding in the sum of N2.67 billion during lockdown when the children are not in school, and some of the money ended up in personal accounts. We have commenced investigations into this finding.”
He stated that under its 2020 constituency and executive projects tracking initiative, 722 projects with a threshold of N100 million (490 ZiP and 232 executive) were tracked across 16 states.
He noted that the constituency tracking project of the agency compelled 59 contractors to return to sites, adding that the individuals handling the projects worth N2.25 billion had abandoned the projects before the ICPC’s intervention.