Kemebradikumo Pondei, acting managing director of the Niger
Delta Development Commission (NDDC), says the agency’s 2019 budget was padded
with over 500 non-existing projects.
Addressing journalists in Rivers state on Tuesday, Pondei
said a huge amount of money was appropriated for non-existing projects.
He was speaking in reaction to allegations of corruption
levelled against the interim management committee (IMC).
He said the interim management committee made the discovery
while investigating the 2019 appropriation to the commission.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2019 ordered a forensic
audit of NDDC finances and the audit took effect in April.
The acting managing director said the commission’s 2019
budget will terminate on May 31 without any project executed in the Niger Delta
during the fiscal year.
“We discovered that after NDDC forwarded its budget to the
national assembly committees on NDDC, what was sent back to the commission was
no longer recognisable,” he said.
“The 2019 budget was classically over padded, with almost
500 new projects inserted to it when it was sent back to us.
“We found out the budget appropriation was done in such a
way that meaningful projects were allocated very little sums of money.
“It is unfortunate that the 2019 budget will expire on May
31 without any project executed in the region. It was passed two months to the
end of its implementation period.
“It is worrying that rather than being a major intervention
agency, the commission has been reduced to erecting street lights and constructing
drainage, something local governments should do.”
Pondei said the alleged misappropriated funds by the IMC was
from people “afraid that the ongoing forensic audit would reveal their corrupt
dealings with past NDDC managements.“
He described the ongoing probe by the national assembly
committees on NDDC as an attempt to “arm-twist and force the IMC to tamper with
the forensic audit.”
“We have faced so much pressure from some members of the
national assembly not to send certain files to forensic auditors. We refused
because we fear this will compromise the process,” he added.
“Similarly, we have also faced pressure to pay for 132 jobs which
have no proof of execution as well as pay out N6.4 billion for those jobs. We
believe that an IMC set up as a cleansing structure cannot become part of an
old story of rot.”
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