By Michael Adesanya
The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) Abuja has announced the end of its Open Contract Reporting Project (OCRP), which started in 2017.
Supported with funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the OCRP aimed at building the capacity of the Nigerian media to report critical on budgetary and procurement processes and all levels of government to promote transparency and accountability.
During the seven years of the project, the ICIR has trained more than 300 journalists from scores of newsrooms across the country; more than 500 investigative reports have been published, many of them winning awards.
The ICIR marks the end of this very impactful project with a public even scheduled for December 10 at The Pearl Hotel, Jabi, Abuja with activities including a keynote address titled “Combating Corruption in Nigeria: The imperative of Starting with Procurement Fraud” to be delivered by the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, ICPC, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu.
This is followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr Joe Abah, with Hamza Lawal, Chief Executive Officer of Connected Development (CODE), Lucy Abagi, Chief Executive Officer of Public and Private Development Centre, (PPDC), Gabriel Okeowo, Country Director, BUDGIT, Victoria Bamas, Editor of The ICIR, and Khadija Bawas, a development journalist, as panellists.
The event will also witness an award ceremony to journalists who have done courageous and outstanding investigative reports in the seven years of the project.
The ICIR will also unveil a data dashboard tagged “Investigative Reports and Impact Dashboard (INRID), a dashboard with information and data on contracts, contractors, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and impact stories from the OCRP
