ENetSuD Investigation: Kwara Govt Blacklists Akorede Community Over N3.4M Fraud
The Kwara State Community and Social Development Agency (KWCSDA) has told the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD) that it has blacklisted Akorere Community in Akerebiata, Ilorin East LGA, following findings from ENetSuD’s audit of the KWCSDA-community co-funded road and electricity projects in the community that over 3.4 million naira was mismanaged and diverted by the community.
It will be recalled that ENetSuD earlier revealed how over 3.4 million naira was diverted by the community out of over 9 million naira meant for the execution of the projects by the community, which is equivalent to 37% of the project sum. Furthermore, ENetSuD had met the community stakeholders on several occasions to give them the option of refunding the money to the government purse, or use the same for the completion of the projects.
Following the community’s failure to comply with the deadlines that they repeatedly pleaded for, ENetSuD had a meeting with KWCSDA to inform the Agency of its intention to petition anti-graft agencies on the diverted funds.
Comrade Lanre Osho (ENetSuD’s Deputy Coordinator, Projects Tracking) and Engr. Kabir Oluku (Secretary of ENetSuD’s Technical Committee) wondered how KWCSDA released funds to communities for projects without ascertaining how same was spent. They reminded the KWCSDA boss that money released to communities for the execution of projects is taxpayers’ money that must not be mismanaged.
While responding to ENetSuD, the General Manager of KWCSDA (Engr. Mrs. Haruna Amamat Oluwatoyin) said that they carried out an independent evaluation of the project after receiving ENetSuD’s report and found that all the findings of ENetSuD were genuine and accurate. She appreciated ENetSuD for giving the Agency a fair hearing before writing a petition to the anti-graft agencies. She explained that they have been diligently doing their works in the agency to protect the public fund, but regrets the obvious mismanagement of fund by Akorede community. She pleaded to ENetSuD to give KWCSDA another one (1) month to recover the diverted fund from the community, a failure of which ENetSuD will have enough justification to proceed with the planned petition.
Signed,
Usman Radhiyyat Taiye (Mrs),
Deputy Coordinator (Administration),
Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD),
31/12/2020
