World Bank Connection: In N826m Imo FADAMA scandal

•Officials may face probe •Scramble for N53b project

From STEVE UZOECHI, Owerri

SCANDALOUS wastage of funds meant for agro-related, rural infrastructural development in Imo State is currently rocking the boat of FADAMA, a World Bank sponsored project. As the row over the alleged $7million (about N0.8billion) FADAMA II funds misappropriation by the project officer and his cronies is yet to be rested, preparations by the Bank are in top gear for a whooping N53 billion third phase of the scheme billed to commence in the state this month.

Expectedly, there has been a disquiet in the state as to whom to entrust with gainfully implementing the FADAMA III project. The worry followed the unfolding scenarios in the FADAMA II saga which tend to suggest that the state's operator of the project whose appointment, it appears, has been firmly secured by some powers that be, may have connived with the World Bank officials charged with monitoring the progress.

Imo State FADAMA Development Officer (SFDO) Mr. Nnaemeka Anyanwu and Dr. Adekunle Oredipe, the National Coordinator of the FADAMA II project are the individuals at the core of the controversy.

While Anyanwu has repeatedly been accused of fraudulent utilization of the FADAMA II fund , Oredipe's mode of operation allegedly largely falls short of all known project ethics. Consequently, he has gone out of his way to shield and insist on keeping Anyanwu on the job even at the detriment of Imo State which must repay the loans being mismanaged by the officer. But Anyanwu has denied any wrongdoing and blames political jobbers for fuelling the controversy.

Angered at such reckless execution of the project and abuse of office, several groups have called for a probe of all the accused officials. By the anti-graft agencies.

FADAMA, in its original form aims to support all-year-round agriculture through irrigation and dry season farming in selected states. Phase II of the programme includes the establishment of small enterprises and development of rural infrastructure to support agro-ventures. The project is funded by the World Bank through a $7million loan as well as N12million and N45.3million counterpart funds. But, the utilization of the loan, ever since its release, has been source of major rows in the state .

Following obvious inconsistencies and irregularities observed in the statement of income, expenditure and details of contracts submitted by Anyanwu to Barrister Soronnadi Njoku, the then Commissioner for agriculture in Imo State, he was asked to proceed on compulsory leave with effect from the October 27, 2005, as a five man panel looked into the finances and affairs of FADAMA II.

The report of the State FADAMA Development Committee (SFDC) whose statutory role it was to supervise and monitor the state's project office, said that Anyanwu, had overstepped his limits in the prudent running of the programme by adopting unethical practices.

When contacted recently on the outcome of the panel's investigation, the former commissioner, regretted that Oredipe, pressured the ministry that the procedure adopted was wrong, and insisted that Anyanwu be recalled. And that despite the staggering charges against the SFDO, Oredipe said that Imo State should consult with the World Bank before any action could be taken.

“I felt that we needed to do what we did because there was nothing to show for all he had done so far and the fund which unfortunately is a loan was going largely into overheads instead of direct utilization by the FADAMA user groups,” Njoku said.

A report of 227 completed projects was submitted by the Anyanwu to the state FADAMA Development Committee (SFDC) during its meeting December 9, 2006.

Consequently, the SFDC demanded detailed list of the completed projects with their titles and locations. On submission of the list, the panel resolved to undertake a field visit to ascertain the status of these projects.
But at the end of the tour, the SFDC in a document signed by Dr. I.S Izugbokwe and Mrs Ajie A.N. inter alia observed that there was gross mis-appropriation of funds; the FADAMA project if handled in the present manner, would collapse in Imo State; and that it was mismanaged as no adequate co-ordination was being carried out from the SFDO's office.

The panel recommended that the SFDO and his facilitators be probed and all indicted officers prosecuted. However, the World Bank allegedly through Oredipe suppressed the implementation of the panel's recommendation until it was overtaken by a cabinet reshuffle.
After that last cabinet reshuffle in the Achike Udenwa administration , Chief Ugochukwu Nnawuihe became the new Commissioner for Agriculture .

In a brief on the FADAMA II programme presented to Nnawuihe by the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) Manager, Chief Don Okwu, dated March 14, 2007, financial recklessness and misappropriation were top on the list.

The document revealed that the SFDO, Anyanwu, spent N318,586,506 on advisory services and capacity building within nine months of fund disbursement and take off.
To this, Okwu observed: “This is fearful to comprehend where good percentage of Imo citizens live in poverty. No responsible government or individual will allow this level of irresponsibility”.

Anyanwu was also indicted for outrageous inflation of purchased materials and contracts which include a few T-shirts for N4milloin, just to welcome a 10-man team from the World Bank office, Abuja and the team leader of FADAMA II in January 2006; purchase of a set of half upholstery seats, a chair, two units of air conditioners and a few dozens of office files for N4.79million against the market value of N230,000; and paying N2.4million for one unit each of computer and generator which were not supplied.

Furthermore, he was indicted of fraudulently awarding contracts, including the rehabilitation of four roads in Obiangwu in Ngor Okpala council, without any FADAMA user group. Mrs Njoku, wife of his procurement officer, Engr Emma Njoku facilitated and packaged the projects. Sadly, there is nothing on ground to show for the four roads for which N4.2millon, N3.8million, N3.9million and N3.2 million have already been disbursed, in two tranches. In fact, in one case, it was just recorded as “feeder road construction in Obiangwu,” with no location, nor FADAMA group mentioned.

The ADP programme manager, in the brief suggested that “ the state Police commissioner, the State Security Service (SSS) the EFCC and ICPC should be alerted to save Imo State government from losing the entire loan to the fraudulent system of Mr. Nnaemeka Anyanwu, the SFDO.”

Anyanwu finds it more convenient to report directly to Oredipe against the Provision of the Project Appraisal Document of the loan which states : “At the state level, the state ADP office will coordinate activities on behalf of the state ministry of Agriculture . The FADAMA project coordinator would report directly to the Programme Manager of the State ADP,” the report said. “Anyanwu reports only to Oredipe with whom he is believed to have some criminal working arrangement .

With the result that while Oredipe protects Anyanwu, he in turn unilaterally spends the FADAMA Loan on behalf of Imo state.”

In view of the gravity of issues raised against Anyanwu, at the expiration of the two year contract term of the FADAMA management staff, the Imo State government refused to renew his contract as the project coordinator and on March 15, 2007 forwarded a new list to Oredipe. An outraged Oredipe on March 21, 2007 in a letter referenced NFDP-II/NFDO/NPC/WB/01/624, to Governor Udenwa, protested the removal of Anyanwu and threatened to halt fund disbursement to Imo.

Then Agriculture Commissioner, Nnawuihe in a response to the letter, warned Oredipe that the World Bank cannot dictate for the state who would manage its loans. That his crony, Anyanwu has been tested and found wanting and fraudulent . And rather than take fund which would be abused and embezzled , Imo would rather stay without the World Bank credit facility.

Consequently, for about 10 months the new FADAMA Management team was in place, Oredipe suspended every dealings with Imo on the FADAMA II programme.

Within this period, Udenwa's tenure ended and the new Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Chief Cosmos Iwu, whom Anyanwu has openly described as his “Godfather and wedding sponsor” came to his rescue.
Ignoring piles of documentary proofs against Anyanwu and blinded by clannish objectives as Anyanwu came from the same Mbano area as Governor Ikedi Ohakim and Iwu, Hon. Mike Iheanetu of the Imo State House of Assembly sponsored a motion for the recall of Anyanwu on January 2008. Oredipe immediately resumed dealing with Imo State.

When the supervisory and assessment teams from the Federal Government and World Bank led respectively by Dr. J.D Alhassan and Dr Abimbola Adubi, in April visited Imo on a fact finding mission to the FADAMA Development Office, residents were excited. Imo people thought the visitation would help halt a perceived abuse of office and misuse of funds by those in charge of the project. But their expectations were quashed as the exercise ended up a hoax. As the teams left, it dawned on residents that the teams perhaps came for their “piece of the action.”

Since the assessment visit by the teams in readiness for the commencement of the FADAMA III programme, a cross-section of the Imo public and some non- governmental organizations (NGOs) have continued to express disappointment that the teams, glossed over hard facts which showed that Anyanwu had merely been junketing with the $7million FADAMA loan.

Dr Jude Ohanele of the National Vanguard for Democracy (NVD) described the assessment visit to Imo as a jamboree and pointed out that it insults the sensibility of the state's people for Anyanwu to claim in his account that he had spent over N946 million in the 11 councils under the FADAMA II programme.

It will be recalled that during Anyanwu's presentation to the visiting teams, Alhassan had noted that the fund he claimed to have expended on the 11 councils was in excess of the N910million available for the project and should be reconciled. Anyanwu presentation showed that out of the N947million, he spent less than N283 million on rural infrastructure for the benefit of the direct user groups, while about N664 million of the project fund was spent on intangibles.

The document presented by Anyanwu which was made available to National Daily is replete with inconsistencies that suggest a desperate effort by the SFDO to manipulate figures and cover up the obvious and large-scale misappropriation of the fund.

Alhassan, who led the federal government delegation had expressed worry over the inflated figures while Adubi regretted the misinformation of the public by Anyanwu who went on air to announce the flawed figure of N946,699,031.90 as money spent so far in 11 councils on the FADAMA II programme.
When National Daily reached Alhassan on phone, the official said he was at the airport on his way out of Owerri but assured that the financial discrepancies would be rectified and the corrected figures made available to the newspaper and the public.

This was never done and to the chagrin of well-meaning Imo people, without bringing the culprits to book nor putting the records straight, Alhassan and Adubi allegedly sneaked out of Imo after they may have been gratified by Anyanwu who is well known for his exceptional “graftsmanship,” our sources said.

In spite of the enormous fund said to have been expended so far on the FADAMA II in Imo, National Daily authoritatively gathered that only 50per cent of the sub-projects have been completed. With the massive scrambling and jostling for juicy positions in the FADAMA III programme billed to commence this month, it is obvious that all the previously uncompleted projects will be abandoned

In exclusive interviews with the National Daily, the immediate past two commissioners for Agriculture in Imo State, Njoku and Nnawuihe bemoaned the role of the World Bank in the utilization of the FADAMA loan and implementation of the Fadama Programme.

Njoku observed thus, “There were too many drawbacks with the World Bank roles. They tend to over-regulate the state apparatus in implementation. They should have allowed us some choice. Their approach is clearly regimental and often reduces government apparatus to redundant roles”.

This, however, frustrates state apparatuses from fully playing roles, thereby making the World Bank the spender of the greater chunk of the loan so obtained.

Njoku added, “the way they insist on capacity building , which is mostly executed by them and takes a significant slice of the loan, leaves greater percentage of the loan going into intangibles. The benefit of FADAMA II should be measured on the number of operational oil mills, boreholes, cassava processing machines, cold rooms , roads , bridges, farm input, animal farms , farm implements and other infrastructures that could aid the rural farmer and not on seminars , tour allowances, out-of-pocket expenses, so-called capacity building, advisory services and other intangibles.

These, relatively leave a rather insignificant chunk of the fund to be spent on the direct FADAMA user groups.”
The role of the World Bank has also remained a source of worry to Nnawuihe, who described Oredipe, as “Fraud Personified”.

National Daily, reliably gathered that Oredipe had allegedly structured most of the Fadama state offices such that a portion of the $7million released to each state is tactfully diverted and channelled back to Oredipe's pocket with the assurance of protecting and renewing the tenures of the State FADAMA Development Officers.

An agricultural economist in the ministry puts it in a nutshell, “we suspect that Oredipe releases fund to Imo with the right hand and takes it back with his left hand through the instrumentality of the SFDO, Mr. Anyanwu.”

Reacting, the FADAMA Communication officer, Mr Augustine Amah denied the allegations of corruption against Anyanwu. When confronted with the fact that the last two commissioners for Agriculture could not have both been wrong when on separate occasions, they had to sack Anyanwu based on issues hinging on fraud and incompetence, Amah described his removal as political. He maintained that the state FADAMA office had excelled and was awaiting the commencement of the FADAMA III programme.

When contacted, Anyanwu, in a telephone discussion, dismissed the allegations against him. “There is no iota of truth in all these allegations. It is simply the handwork of some cheap political jobbers,” Anyanwu said.
However, when National Daily visited a few of the FADAMA project sites, it was obvious that little or no work was done on the roads said to have been rehabilitated in Obiangwu Ngor Okpala council, for which over N12million naira had been released.

FADAMA had shamelessly and unconscionably mounted their sign post indicating the completed five kilometres feeder road linking Umuchoko-Umunehi-Ulakwo in obiangwu, Ngor Okpala council .
National Daily saw a road in the worst state of disrepair, with absolutely nothing to justify the millions of naira claimed to have been spent on it.

In a similar scenario, when National Daily walked into a poultry farm FADAMA claimed to have built and completed in Umuopara, Obiangwu, Ngor Okpala LGA, the livid and disappointed owner, Ekeocha bared his mind.

Hear him: “ I am terribly disappointed with these FADAMA people. I was building my poultry farm when they came, we cost the farm house and agreed on an estimate of about N1.2million.They told me to go on and complete the building with my money, that they would reimburse me the full cost of establishing the farm. When I raised fund and finished the farm house, they only brought a paltry N200,000. This does not even include the cost of stocking the poultry of over 1,000 birds capacity. Before you knew it, they have already mounted a sign post claiming that my poultry was established through the FADAMA II project.”

Ekeocha , who also is a big fish farmer told National Daily that he sunk the water borehole in his premises and built his fish farms without any help from FADAMA. He called on the World Bank to render gainful and profitable assistance to rural dwellers if indeed the FADAMA project is designed to help them.

At present, Anyanwu and his cronies are engrossed in scheming for the FADAMA III programme billed to commence shortly . The FADAMA III programme is worth about $450million (about N53billion).
National Vanguard for Democracy therefore has called for the probe of Anyanwu's tenure in office. It also demanded the termination of Oredipe's contract in all World Bank projects and regretted that if $7million had been judiciously spent in the said 11 councils, the current food crisis would not have been an issue in Imo state and other FADAMA states