Chief David Onuoha-Bourdex, a member of Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has called for the removal of constituency projects from the nation’s budget.
This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Amara Umunna, Special Assistant and Public Communications to Onuoha-Bourdex and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
According to the statement, Onuoha-Bourdex said that constituency projects appropriation remained a source of corruption for lawmakers.
“I am moved to call for the removal of the constituency projects from the nation’s budgets, after carefully observing how the provision have aided corruption in the National Assembly, especially in the areas of budgeting and oversights,’’ he said.
Onuoha-Bourdex said though money appropriated for constituency projects does not go to law makers, “the legislators cleverly go underground to nominate emergency contractors and most times end up undertaking the projects.’’
He said that evidence abound on how such jobs are usually poorly executed without proper supervision.
Reacting to the recent delay in passing the 2016 budget, the APGA chieftain said that part of the causes for padding of figures was to take care of native projects for lawmakers.
“Instead of such ad hoc projects, the legislators should focus on their job of law making through painstaking oversight and holding the executive to account.
Onuoha-Bourdex alleged that many projects had remained in deplorable state because lawmakers from the areas see them as source of easy money during oversights.