NDDC needs NASS partnership to project completion rate’

Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mrs. Akwagaga Enyina, on Wednesday, sought the partnership of the National Assembly in improving the completion rate of contracts and projects awarded by the commission in oil-producing states.

Speaking when she appeared at the investigative hearing held by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating abandoned projects in the Niger Delta region on Wednesday in Abuja, the commission’s chief executive expressed the commission’s commitment to addressing the low rate of completion of the projects.

“I will like to state that the NDDC is determined to tackle this huge challenge of extremely low and slow rate of project completion. But, to do this, we very humbly request for the backing of this honourable committee, the House of Representatives and the National Assembly, at large.

“In particular, we ask for your help in the recovery of all payments due from the Federal Government as well as oil and gas companies operating in the Niger Delta region, in accordance with the NDDC Act,” she said.

The acting managing director said that there were 660 newly awarded projects and appealed to the committee to support the commission to ensure a drastic reduction in the introduction of new projects in the NDDC budget.

She said that there were a total of 9, 820 awarded projects out of which 4, 288 have been completed while 1, 786 are yet to commence, disclosing that there were a total of 342 stalled projects out of which 30 have been taken over with 49 others terminated.

She said that a total of N2.8 trillion was approved in the budget, but only N1.8 trillion was released, adding that there was an outstanding funding gap of N983 billion based on approved annual budget and a gap of N1.3 trillion based on amount payable to the NDDC.

Enyina said that there were unremitted funds of N60.2 billion due to NDDC through the Ecological Fund.

Chairman of the ad hoc committee, Rep. Nicholas Ossai (PDP/Delta), directed the commission to provide account statements and all other relevant documents to the committee on or before September 27.

He also invited all past managing directors of the commission to appear before the committee to explain the roles each of them played in respect to project execution while in office.