Why Buhari ordered forensic audit of NDDC

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a forensic audit of the operations of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from 2001 to 2019.

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The president gave the directive when he received governors of the states from the Niger Delta, led by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa state on Thursday in Abuja.

The president said the directive has become imperative in view of the persistent criticisms of the operations of the commission.

According to him, what is presently on ground in the Niger Delta region does not justify the huge resources that have been made available to the commission.

He said: “I try to follow the Act setting up these institutions, especially the NDDC.

“With the amount of money that the Federal Government has religiously allocated to the NDDC, we will like to see the results on the ground; those that are responsible for that have to explain certain issues.

“The projects said to have been done must be verifiable. You just cannot say you spent so much billions and when the place is visited, one cannot see the structures that have been done.

“The consultants must also prove that they are competent,’’ he said.

Buhari admitted that developing the Niger Delta area required enormous resources compared to other parts of the country with firmer lands.

“I am very much aware, with my experience, that projects in your area are very expensive; that is why if any job is given, we must make sure that the company is competent and has the capacity to do it well, with experienced consultants,” he added.

The president, however, said that he would wait for the report of the audit before deciding on the next line of action regarding the commission.

Governor Dickson had earlier expressed the disappointment of other governors with the operations of the NDDC.

According to him, the commission’s operations had been characterised by poor choice of projects, shoddy handling, uncompleted jobs and lack of required support for the efforts of the states and local governments in its areas of coverage.

He, therefore, called for the repositioning of the commission in order to achieve the objectives for which it was set up.

In a related development, the Senate has started probing an alleged N65 billion contract scandal in the NDDC involving the purported inflation of a N2.5 billion contract meant for the clearance of water hyacinth from the various riverine areas of the oil-rich region.

The Senate’s resolution followed the refusal of the acting Managing Director of NDDC, Dr. Enyia Akwagaga, to appear before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.

According to the Committee, Dr. Enyia Akwagaga, twice failed to come with relevant documents relating to all awarded contracts particularly that water hyacinth job but has failed to honour the invitations.

The Managing Director was however represented by NDDC’s Director for Special Duties, Nosakhare Agbongiaaede, who assured the senators that all needed documents would be provided at the next scheduled meeting on Monday.

According to him, the Managing Director was unable to appear for the panel because she was indisposed.

He urged the Committee to fix the meeting for another day that would be convenient to the lawmakers.

On the non-submission of the relevant documents to the Committee, Nosakhare said it was an oversight on the part of the Commission.

The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Mathew Urhoghide, said that the committee learnt that the NDDC had allegedly spent N65bn on the project valued at N2.5bn.

He said: “We had invited the acting Managing Director and Management of the NDDC to come and testify before the Senate Public Accounts Committee on an issue that has become of national importance.

“It is the award of contracts that has to do with the clearing of water hyacinth in the Niger Delta region and of course the desilting contracts that were awarded by the NDDC under their emergency programme.

“Well we cannot talk about the details now why we are particularly interested in this investigation.

“We want to be able to ascertain if due processes were followed in the award of these contracts, particularly the Information that we have at our disposal that they exceeded budget limits.

“Of course, that is a very serious offence. What we are hearing or what we know is that N2.5 billion was budgeted for this activity, that is, desilting and clearing of water hyacinths.

“We are hearing that the Commission has already spent N65bn so we want to know if it is true.

“It is an allegation. It is still an assumption until they come to clear the air surrounding this.

“This is why the Senate is particularly interested and they mandated this committee to carry out full investigation.

“So we want the Acting MD to come. We are aware that the acting MD assumed duties a few weeks ago but government is a continuum.

“It is not a case of whether she is the one that was in office or not, and again we are very clear that this committee is not out to witch hunt anybody.

“We want to make sure that all mechanisms, all processes of doing government business particularly when it comes to expenditure of public funds.

“This committee is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that there is transparency, accountability and economy, that is there is value for money.

“Once we are able to ascertain that the Commission has done it well, of course they are not going to have any problem.

“If not, we will recommend appropriate sanctions.

“The Committee has also mandated her to forward to it all the needed information about the Contract on or before Monday next week.

“The required information to be forwarded to the Committee on Monday include project title and names of contractors.

“Others are Location of the contract; addresses of the contractors; contract sum; date of award; amount paid to date and actual date of completion.

“Also to be forwarded to the Public Accounts Committee are original copy of all the newspaper advertisements for the contract.

“We have also demanded the Technical Bids for the job by each of the bidders; financial bids submitted by each of the bidders for the job; Deduction of taxes (VAT and WHT) and evidence of remittances.”

Akwagaga, who assumed duties as the acting Managing Director of the Commission was appointed in August following the removal of Professor Nelson Brambaifa-led interim management board of the NDDC.