In what appears to be a breathtaking revelation, the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu has revealed that about N1.3 trillion was misappropriated by thirty-two (32) persons between 2011 and 201, a period in which Nigeria's former, Goodluck Jonathan leader of the country.
Magu made the disclosure at an event organized by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for “2019 First Batch Conversion Training Programme to Procurement Cadre for Federal Parastatals and Agencies.
He said “One-third of this money, using world bank rates and cost could have comfortably been used to construct well over 500 kilometers of roads. “Build close to 200 schools; educate about 4, 000 children from primary to tertiary levels at N25 million per child; build 20, 000 units of two-bedroom houses across the country and do even more.
“The cost of this grand theft, therefore, is that these roads, schools, and houses will never be built and these children will never have access to quality education.
“This is because a few rapacious individuals have cornered for themselves what would have helped secure the lives of the future generations thereby depriving them of quality education and healthcare, among others.”
The EFCC Boss decried the poor state of the procurement process in Nigeria as one of the major reasons why corruption had continued to thrive in government agencies and parastatals.
Magu identified some of the fraudulent practices in procurement processes to include kickbacks, conflict of interests, fraud in the bidding process, bid suppression among others.
