A former Chairman of the Governing Board, Projects Development Institute, Daniel Onjeh, has called on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to order a probe into the school pencil project of the institute.
The school pencil project, according to the Federal Government, is aimed at producing a minimum of 15 million pencils per annum in the institute.
But Onjeh said the institute had yet to commence the project one year after the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, signalled its commencement.
This was contained in an open letter addressed to the President, a copy which was made available to The PUNCH on Tuesday.
The letter was titled, ‘Impunity and disregard for presidential directives: A major setback to your administration’.
The 12-page letter read in part, “The Federal Government should investigate the PRODA school pencil project and the promises of the minister, Dr Onu, to Nigerians that the project would commence before December 2020 and would create 4,500 jobs for Nigerians. It is the year 2022 now and the project has not even employed one additional staff member since the minister came to commence the project in 2020.
“Besides, all the equipment and machines to be used for the project were to be imported from China, whereas PRODA is a research and development institute that was expected to utilise local raw materials for the innovation, design and construction of its tools and equipment.”
Onjeh also asked the President to as a matter of urgency constitute a committee to probe the finances of the institute and other parastatals under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
“Also, the President should urgently constitute a high-powered committee to launch a full-scale investigation into the financial mismanagement at PRODA and other parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and Innovation, detailing the involvement of the National Assembly. The committee’s report should serve as the basis for further investigation by the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies,” he stated.
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