Centre launches anti-corruption toll-free line

The Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) has called for increase participation of Nigerians in anticorruption efforts through ‘Budeshi’.

Communications Officer of the centre, Nnenna Gabriella Eze said yesterday in a statement that the organisation in its bid to increase citizens’ participation and accountability has launched a toll free line 0800BUDESHI OR 08002833744 to enable citizens report on the state of public projects within their locality and state at no cost.

According to her ‘Budeshi’ (which is Hausa word for “Open it”) is a dedicated site that links budget and procurement data to various public services and is accessible to the public to interact with and make their own comparisons.

“This remarkable feat will not only encourage citizens’ inclusion, but will also serve as an avenue to keep government institutions aware of abandoned projects they may not be aware of. In the past we have found out that citizens especially in the rural communities find it difficult to report the state of projects in their locality, this can be attributed to them not knowing the exact and proper channel to report to,” Eze said.

She said ‘Budeshi’ is an attempt to demonstrate the Open Contracting Data Standards (OCDS) across the public procurement value chain.