Makinde’s government spent ₦5 billion on 42 ambiguous projects

2021

Makinde’s government spent ₦5 billion on 42 ambiguous projects

Country/area: Nigeria

Organisation: Dataphyte

Organisation size: Small

Publication date: 25 Dec 2020

Credit: Olusola Oludiran

Project description:

The Project was borne out curiosity to inform the society on h Engineer Seyi Makinde’s government engaged contractors for unspecified projects, this time 42 of them worth ₦5 billion; The Oyo State Bureau of Public Procurement (Oyo BPP) has some questions to answer for publishing expenditure with unactionable data, from location to quantity; Not to mention this act contravened the state’s public open contracting and procurement regulations; In all, while the state’s adoption of open contracting is laudable, it’s the finer details that scream the loudest; thus, championing transparency to its fullest extent is the way to go for Governor

Impact reached:

The story became one of the top twenty stories published by Dataphyte in the year 2020, The project has also raised people’s consciousness to ask the government the right questions in demanding for openness in governance.

Techniques/technologies used:

Consultation of Open Data. The story features all steps of consulting of Open Data, right from the interrogation of raw data to cleaning it to becoming explanatory for the public interest..

What was the hardest part of this project?

The project is embedded with the data analysis and interpretation with the touch of policy explanation. In deploying all of these techniques, there was a mindset of objectivity which is the core element of journalism and that came about by asking the government appropriate questions and to get their side of the story. Although, the authority refused to respond to all inquiries, but then experte’s opinion was still sought to give the story a touch of balance .