The Lagos State water project is enmeshed with corruption and scam as officials that handled it were caught in the act of diverting monies using a contractor.
An act that has helped in undermining projects in Nigeria and contributed to the underdevelopment of communities across the country and deepening poverty and inequality among the citizens
Value for Money, a public accountability organization has since uncovered how officials who undertook the Water Supply project at Agbado Ijaiye area of Lagos State connived to divert monies meant for the project using the contractor as a cover.
Under the deal, the project was awarded for the sum of N565.1 million while the contractor was paid N404.7 million, and the sum of N110 million was diverted and not accounted for.
Worse still, despite the huge amount of money expended on the project, it has since collapsed while community residents now suffer acute water scarcity.
Lagos water project officials are not the only offender, across the Nigerian state, virtually all projects are inflated while officials connive with contractors to divert and steal monies using the procurement process as a cover.
On many occasions, the projects are abandoned while monies are allocated and released and documents carefully produced to back up the fraud in case the anti-graft agencies want to investigate and prosecute them in the future.
The practice in Nigerian has been to award contracts as compensation to political allies who the government in power thinks played key roles in making them get into offices.
And in some instances, the companies that get the contract are not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission and do not have any legal backing, have no traceable or physical address.
They simply collect the money and disappear with nobody bothered whether the job is done or not and this practice has contributed hugely to deepening corruption in Nigeria.
MAWA Foundation could not immediately reach out to the officials who handle the project for a response.