The United Nations Development
Programme, UNDP, has accused the Presidential Initiative on the North East,
PINE, of complicity in the illegal diversion of funds donated to help
Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in the country.
The draft report, which UNDP
issued in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, on
Tuesday, revealed that out of N8.352billion released to PINE in 2016, a total
sum of N6.326bn was spent, leaving a balance of N2.026bn.
It however decried that PINE
which depleted the funds, “paid less attention to the critical needs of IDPs in
the areas of housing, food, education and healthcare, but rather used the bulk
of the resources on contracts that were found to have immensely benefitted some
public officials including the now-suspended Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Babachir Lawal”.
According to the report which
UNDP and NHRC made available to newsmen in Abuja, “Public procurement rules and
extant federal financial guidelines were breached in the award of the
contracts.
“Prima facie cases of conflict of
interest were established and companies were fully paid as at a time they had
not finished the assigned jobs, whilst kickbacks were made by some companies to
others where public officials had clear interest.
“Again, out of 249 trucks
carrying 10,000 metric tonnes of Maize released by the Federal Government for
the benefit of the IDPs in the six states of the North East, 65 trucks were
diverted and did not reach their intended destination.
“They were later recovered by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after the Senate Committee report was
made public.
“But this is a development
against the background of the mounting hunger and food crisis in the IDP
camps”.
“The findings was that
governments did not use the maximum of available resources to protect the
rights and welfare of the IDPs. The resources provided at the federal and state
levels were paltry.
“In Gombe State, even the little
provided in the state budget was not released and cash backed. Most of the IDPs
lived in host communities with little access to official humanitarian support,
putting additional strain on the already stretched communual health, education
and social services.
“The camps were struggling to
accommodate the increasing number of displaced people, who found themselves
subject to unhealthy living conditions. Many children were malnourished, as
adequate provisions were not made to feed them”.
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