BEVERLY HILLS, August 03, (THEWILL) – A senate report has indicted the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC and accused the Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei and members of the committee of demanding kickbacks and receiving between 20% – 30% of contract sums from contractors before they are paid.
Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi (APC, Ekiti North) led Ad-hoc Committee which investigated alleged financial recklessness of the agency’s N40 billion allocation claimed that there were many cases of sharp practices in the financial affairs of the agency.
THEWILL recalls that Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Niger Delta Minister, whose Ministry supervises the NDDC, had claimed that some members of the National Assembly are beneficiaries of NDDC contracts, sparking an outrage from Nigerians and other members of the National Assembly.
The Adhoc committee’s report however claimed that NDDC headquarters is far from completion contrary to Akpabio’s claim.
According to the report, NDDC received a total sum of N74.655billion in eight months between October 29, 2019, and May 31, 2020. The monies accrued from revenue from oil companies, the Federal Government’s statutory allocation, and tender-bidding fees. It claimed the funds were mismanaged.
“The claim of IMC of the NDDC of paying contractors with less than N50 million is totally untrue as there are over 500 transformer installations with payments of less than N4.5 million that had not been made for eight years.
“That the new head of IMC, Prof Pondei and other members of IMC are now collecting 20 per cent to 30 percent of contract sums before contractors are paid,” the committee said, quoting the Chairman, Contractors Association of NDDC, Mr Joe Adia, who submitted a written complaint.
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“The contractors that were paid are those that have access to the IMC and known to them and the real contractors that did their jobs judiciously were not paid.”
In another development, the committee was told through a written submission by a civil society organisation, Act for Positive Transformation Initiative, that an engineering company was awarded the contract of consultancy on awareness campaign on the prevention of the spread of coronavirus in the NDDC state which it said, was in contravention of the public procurement law.
According to the report, the claim by the IMC of awarding the COVID-19 intervention contract after the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari was not also true.
“The IMC had awarded the contracts prior to the Presidential approval which is in total disregard of laid-down procedure as the contract sum is above the board threshold.
“That the presidential approval for the procurement of COVID-19 emergency contract was granted on May 30, 2020, whereas the contract was given by the IMC long before the approval.
“That most of the contract approvals were done in a shady manner and that some of the benefiting companies got 15 percent and above mobilization instantly after the approval of their contracts in less than 24 hours,” the report said.
THEWILL reports that the NDDC has been a cash cow for the management of the supposed interventionist agency and politicians from the area. It has received almost one trillion since it was created without any significant development in the impoverished oil-rich region.
President Muhammadu Buhari disbanded the previous management and instituted an Interim Management Committee to oversee a forensic audit of the agency.
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