Senate Probes N52bn FG’s Public Works Programme

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Senate Public Account Committee has started investigating the Public Works Programme coordinated by National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in 2020.

The federal government had launched the programme targeted at recruiting 774,000 Nigerians.

At least 1, 000 people were selected from each of the 774 local government areas in the country, who were paid N20, 000 each per month, for three months.

The Chairman of the Senate Panel, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, at the Committee’s meeting yesterday, gave the NDE two weeks to submit a comprehensive report of the beneficiaries of the scheme in the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

SPAC, which is currently investigating expenditure of Service Wide Votes (SWV) discovered that the NDE collected N26 billion for the scheme in 2020.

There was a mild drama at the panel’s meeting as all seven senators that were present at the meeting said no members of their constituents benefited from the scheme.

One of the panel members, Senator Thompson Sekibo, said nobody was selected among his constituents that he nominated for employment.

He said all names submitted by federal lawmakers who are the real representatives of the people, were not considered.

Also, Senator Michael Nnachi said he could not identify any single person from his constituency that benefited from his Senatorial District.

He added that the NDE should make available beneficiary lists from his Senatorial District.

The Committee members therefore unanimously agreed that the NDE should submit names, phones number, and the account details of the 1, 000 beneficiaries in each  of the 774 local government areas within one week.

However, the representative of the NDE who is a Director in the agency, Isah Abdul, appealed to the Committee to give the agency three weeks to compile the list of beneficiaries.  However, the Committee declined and gave the agency two weeks to submit the list.