More revelations are coming up concerning the alleged
financial recklessness in the Niger Delta Development Commission.
A Senate report which was obtained on Monday in Abuja showed
how the top management of the agency shared N4.9bn among themselves. However,
it was done in the guise of medical checkups at a time when Nigeria was under
lockdown to check COVID-19 spread.
The Senate report also showed that the management paid
N114.9m as a supplementary medical allowance to 26 staff members during the
same period.
The report indicated that the monies were paid to the
individual accounts in March and April this year, adding that acting Managing
Director, Kemebradikumo Pondei, and the two executive directors got N14.2m
each.
The report, however, cleared the first Interim Management
Committee led by Joi Nunieh of any wrongdoing concerning this. It stated that
no such payment took place during her tenure.
It nonetheless, stated that available data showed that the
allowance had been in existence even though it appeared to have no specific
policy underpinning it.
The report was adopted and approved by the Senate shortly
before it proceeded on its annual recess penultimate week.
The report stated, “The three members of the Interim
Management Committee received the highest amount of N142m each.
“Two other people, namely Evan Caroline Nagbo and Ms Cecilia
Akintomide, took N12,387,500 each, while Peter Uwa Edieya was paid N10,340,000.
The report further added that four other members of staff
collected about N8m each while 140 others collected an average of N7m each.
The NDDC management also paid 75 others N6m each while 153
staff members were paid N5.5m.
Four other categories of staff were paid between N4.1m and
N4.8m while seven others got about N3m each.
The document further indicated that 804 staff members
collected between N2.4m and N2.9m each.
Apart from these, the document showed that the management
paid N114.9m as a supplementary medical allowance to 26 staff members.
No fewer than 15 of them got N7m while one of them collected
N5.2m.
The rest however collected between N375, 000 and N550, 000
each.
The report indicated that “payment to all the 1,401 staff
who received the allowance was made on 16 March 2020.”
It added that the distribution of the payment category and
the number of staff did not suggest a regular hierarchical pattern and an
absence of clear policy, which raised suspicion of arbitrariness.
The report also stated that the NDDC management used staff
members for the distribution of Lassa Fever kits.
It explained that Personal Protective Kits were given to the
185 LGAs of the Niger Delta states through the NDDC staff.
The staff members, according to the document, were paid
various amounts, ranging from N300,000 to N6,845,000, on April 15, 2020, for
the distribution of the kits.
The report stated, “The total amount used for the distribution
is N55,090,000.
“Twenty-nine employees were engaged in ‘Monitoring of the
Emergency Response Programme on Lassa Fever Outbreak at a cost of N5,972,500’.
“NDDC did not provide any returns on the end-user
beneficiaries which would have helped in evaluating the accountability and
transparency of the programme. There was also no mention of the original target
beneficiaries.
“NDDC management did not provide details of allocation of
the Lassa fever Protective Kits per each state and LGA and how the distributors
were assigned as well as the collated report on the distribution exercise.
“They should have justified the huge amount of money
allocated for the exercise.”
The report further added that by its own record. NDDC spent
N808.9m as imprest between October 29 2019 and May 23. 2020.
It stated that “this covers a period of seven months during
most of which the nation was on lockdown.
“Given that significant amount was also expended on travels,
duty tour allowance during this period, payment of bills, it is difficult to
justify this huge amount as imprest necessary for the services of the
commission.”
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