The federal government is set to unveil a project tracking app to allow citizens and other stakeholders independently monitor and report progress of projects implementation as captured in the budget.
The was made known on Tuesday by Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr. Clems Agba, when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Civil Society Organisations and Donor Agencies.
In his remarks, Chairman the committee, Hon. Idris Kabiru, said the House mandated the panel to investigate the funds flowing into the North East from donor agencies and the manner of utilisation in the fight against insurgency in the area.
Agba while responding to questions on how implementation of projects from such funds undergo monitoring and evaluation (M&E) said, “the Web App, which we are going to deploy soon will make Nigerians do the monitoring themselves. The exact location of any project can be determined, so if for instance any MDA claim to have constructed a road, and the road is not in existence, Nigerians will tell us.”
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To guard against frivolous reporting however, the Minister disclosed that the app would come with full geo-referencing capabilities, so that if a report is sent, it could be immediately detected if the said project is not in existence.
“When we are done with the Web App, there will be greater transparency,” he submitted.
He also informed the committee that his ministry do not receive donor funds, or apply same in the execution of projects or programmes, as respective donor groups and NGOs with specific areas of interests fund their programmes.
Also responding to Kabiru’s query on why some NGOs without clear-cut interest, or unregistered continue to operate, Agba said, “For the donor agencies who come to register, we seek to know their sources of funds, because as a country, we do not want to receive funds from terrorism, so the ministry usually approach the EFCC or the National Security Adviser (NSA) for advice.
“Just recently, we have to deregister some of the NGOs operating in the North East part of the country, and it was based on advice of the NSA.”
