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Reps seek suspension of 30 billion Naira ID card project
Nigeria’s House of Representatives is to investigate the previous national identity card project.
The lawmakers urged the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to suspend the injection of 30 billion Naira into another project pending the conclusion of the investigation.
The decision was taken after the adoption of a motion was moved to urgently investigate the Nigerian Government’s 30 billion Naira National Identity Card Project”, sponsored by Bimbo Daramola.
He said the approval of the money by FEC was unconstitutional because the parliament did not capture it in the Appropriation Act.
According to him, little progress has been made despite the huge amount of money involved, while similar projects in the past were discovered to have been fraught with fraud.
Abuse, waste and possible fraud
He said: “It is disturbing that the same identity card project has been characterised by many episodic events from huge financial resources allocation down the drains to conviction of those saddled with the project for corruption charges.
In his words, “The 30 billion naira approved by FEC to be spent on the project has neither gone through appropriation of the House nor the parliament consulted and Nigerians in their millions are alarmed that the government is about to commit this huge resources into the project again.
“This huge amount of money, whose source has not been properly explained that also failed to determine the time of completion of the project, may just go down the drain, constituting another abuse, waste and maybe fraud.
“The disposition of committing limited resources to projects that Nigerians have not derived value from cannot augur well for our country, more so when there are many equally important areas of our national life seeking attention”.
National development
Jerry Manye queried the outcome of the 2001 project. He asked: “Is the on-going project the continuation of the old one or a new project entirely?
“Where is the money to fund this coming from, because it was not captured in the budget?”
In disagreement, Betty Apiafi, noted that the importance of the project to national development as well as security cannot be overemphasised.
She said rather than put the project on hold, the House should consider the factors militating against its success.
The lawmaker suggested that the House should find out the competence of the contractor involved as well as due process that drove the award of the contract.
Jumoke Okoya-Thomas urged the House to investigate the level of conformity to the Procurement Act while the process was on-going.
The motion was unanimously supported with the House mandating its committees on Interior and National Planning and Economic Development to investigate the state of the project.
NP/Iheanacho
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