ICPC uncovers N2.67bn school feeding money in private accounts

Etim Ekpimah

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has uncovered a staggering N2.67bn payment made to some Federal colleges for school feeding during the lockdown when children were not in school, which ended up in personal accounts.

ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, said this during his keynote address at the second National Summit on Diminishing Corruption with the theme: “Together Against Corruption and Launch of the National Ethics and Integrity Policy,” held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to him, the Open Treasury Portal review carried out between January to August 15, 2020, out of 268 Ministries, Departments and Agendas (MDAs) 72 of them had cumulative infractions of N90m.

He said while 33 MDAs tendered explanations that N4.1bn was transferred to sub-TSA, N4.2bn paid to individuals had no satisfactory explanations.

According to Owasanoye, “We observed that transfers to sub-TSA was 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 these finding.”

The ICPC Chairman also said that under its 2020 constituency and executive projects tracking initiative, 722 projects with a threshold of N100m (490 ZiP and 232 executive) was tracked across 16 states. The ICPC chairman said in the education sector, 78 MDAs were reviewed and common cases of misuse of funds were uncovered.