The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NDDC

  • NDDC committed to Niger Delta development, says Abia

    The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is determined to fulfil its core mandate of developing the Niger Delta region, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commission, Sir Bassey Dan Abia has said.

    Speaking in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, Abia expressed the commitment of the Commission to tackle youths  and women unemployment in the region through capacity building and economic empowerment programmes  for youths and women in the Niger delta region.

    It was at a ceremony organised in his honour by a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Niger Delta Network Advancement Program (NDNAP), which conferred an Award of Excellence on him for “transparent corporate  management ethics, poverty, disaster reductions and capacity building among the youths in line with SDGs 2030”.

    Abia, who expressed delight delight at the recognition, thanked the group, assuring that the award would further spur him to deliver on the mandate of the Commission as put forward by the Federal Government.

    Across the Nine Niger Delta States, the NDDC boss pointed out that the intervention of the agency within the short period of his leadership has ensured the spread of development projects in roads, water, electricity, scholarships and development of educational infrastructures in Universities within the region.

    Presenting the award on behalf of NDNAP, the representative of GNDR, the London, United Kingdom affiliate  group, Mr. Chibundu Uchegbu, explained that the global body “is committed to addressing the problems of poverty and disaster reduction in Niger Delta”.

    He commended the agency under Abia for its contributions towards disaster reductions, climate change and poverty reduction which has earned him this unique recognition by the global body.

    Besides, the group commended the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, for his giant strides in the last 100 days in office, noting that “what the President has achieved within this few months in office shows that he has good intentions for Nigeria and Nigerians”.

    Earlier, the President of the organisation , Al mustapher Emem Edoho, called on the Federal Government to “strengthen the Commission as a critical intervention agency in Nigeria to continue to deliver on its set goals and mandate”.

    He urged for increased funding of the agency through immediate release of backlog of NDDC withheld funds , which according to investigation stands in excess of N800 billion, adding that “such an amount, if released will greatly help in massive infrastructural transformation of the Niger Delta as a whole”.

    He also commended Buhari’s anti corruption agenda, noting that “this has manifested in the steady supply of power up to 4000 megawatts in the country, improved refining capacity at the Port Harcourt refinery to reduce importation of refined petroleum products”, among others within these 100 days of Buhari’s tenure”.

     

  • Lawmakers fault NDDC over abandoned projects

    The Deputy Chief Whip of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Otuekong Nse Udofot Essien, has decried the spate of abandoned projects in Akwa Ibom State by Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    Consequently he has reported the Commission to the State House of Assembly.

    Essien, a member representing the Onna State Constituency in the 26-member Assembly, bemoaned what he described as lack of commitment by the Federal Government agency towards the development agenda of the region.

    The lawmaker who spoke to our correspondent in Uyo, the State capital, noted that “if such development agencies live up to their expectations, the multiplier effects of such action would have properly felt by the local residents.”

    According to him, NDDC contractors were in the habits of abandoning projects after collecting mobilisation fees, saying such attitude was detrimental to the development plans of the state government.

    More worrisome to the lawmaker is the pathetic state of rural roads in Onna, especially the Ikot Akpatek-Ikwe-Odio Road, a strategic access road traversing the oil bearing communities of Onna and Eket, Essien said.

    The Deputy Whip, who has taken the matter before the House for deliberation, also impressed on the leadership of the Assembly to grant his prayers that an inventory of projects abandoned by the NDDC in Akwa Ibom state be taken with a view to drawing the Federal Government’s attention for quick intervention.

  • Corruption and NDDC 

    During the time of Mr. Godwin Omene, the first MD of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan was initiated and developed by GTZ and this provided a very comprehensive plan of how the region can be developed across various sectors. A lot of effort went into developing that plan and even today it is still relevant for the proper development of the region. Rather than use the plan to develop the region it was used as an excuse to agitate for more funds which were then diverted into private pockets. Slowly the NDDC budget got captured by political and other vested interests.

    As the budgets increased over the years, the value of the projects started to blow up. The use of variations to existing projects went out of control. For instance, a contract originally awarded at N3.39 billion to ROUDO NIG. LTD for Sandfilling and Shore protection of Ogu Town ended up costing N8, 133 billion, a whopping 230% increment. Construction of Isielu-Okaigbene Idungboko road awarded to JID CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LTD for N2.35 billion ended up at N3.73 billion, increased by 160%. Construction of (the same?) Isielu-Okaigbene Idungboko road was also awarded to INTER-BAU CONSTRUCTION NIG. LTD for N585 million and ended up at N3.67 billion, an increase of 620%. Construction of Ikot Ukap Ndiya internal roads in Nsit Ubium LGA awarded to OSMOSERVE GLOBAL LTD for N1.2 billion ended up at N2.86 billion, an increase of 235%. This is just the tip of the iceberg of hundreds of projects varied in this manner. One key factor connecting these projects is that they tend to be large infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, shoreline protection, canalization and dredging.

    Since inception NDDC has had about N2.2 trillion budgeted of which about N1.4 trillion has been received. As of 2008 the Commission had awarded just over 2,500 projects which rose sharply to 6,000 projects by 2013 and now 8,000 projects in 2015 based on recent comments in the press by the last Chairman of the Board, Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw. According to him, the Commission needs about N1 trillion to complete outstanding projects.  The Chairman revealed that the total projects outstanding is now at 8,000 projects worth N1 trillion and about N800 billion is needed to clear outstanding liabilities. So what happened to the almost N350 billion received between 2011 and 2015?

    There are various mechanisms used to defraud the Commission and siphon the funds afore-mentioned. If the network of corrupt officers at the Commission are not removed and the mechanisms documented here are not dismantled, whoever President Muhammadu Buhari brings into the NDDC to replace the existing Board is likely to fall into the ‘bear trap’ of corrupt practices that have been ingrained into the fabric of the Commission’s administrative systems.

    1. Budget Fraud: The problems starts at the budget process where a lot of fake projects are smuggled into the project by special interest groups that include the Executives, Board members, National Assembly NDDC committee members, the Presidency, State Governors and assorted politicians and connected businessmen.
    2. Hidden Budget Execution: Sometime around 2004 the National Assembly complained that the Commission was repeating projects in its budgets. Whenever NDDC budgets are approved by the National Assembly it contains funds for visible and ‘invisible’ projects. Off balance sheet spreadsheets are used to maintain a schedule of hidden budget heads and the management of this spreadsheet and the scheduling of projects to be paid through this fund is a key aspect of the fraud at the Commission.
    3. Procurement Fraud: The whole ‘due process’ is a fallacy at NDDC. The Procurement Unit has perfected the creation of award letters to the highest bidders. You cannot get an award letter without parting with some money. All the paperwork is faked and in most cases where there is urgency driven by Executive demand there is no paperwork at all. There are no publications and even when they do publish, the process is rigged in favour of their preferred contractors. Contracts are shared amongst the Executives with their Special Assistants acting as agents to solicit desperate businessmen who pay 15% of the face value of these contracts and the Procurement Unit prepares the paperwork for the favoured contractor.
    4. Project Design and Project Monitoring Fraud: This is especially grave and works by inflating the quantities required in the Bill of Quantities (BoQ) for large-scale infrastructure projects. For instance the BoQ may specify that a canal be dredged to 10 metres depth and this is used to price the contract but in reality the contractor will only dredge the channel to 5 metres depth and the excess funds are shared. This type of fraud is used across road construction, shoreline protection and canalization projects. A famous case is the East-West Expressway between Warri and Port Harcourt where the Ministry of Niger Delta had to redesign the road due to bad design by the NDDC. The irony is that a careful review of the BoQs always reveals the over-specified quantities and the responsible staff members. The Project monitoring process is badly compromised which is why most roads built by NDDC last for no more than 9 to 15 months before they are washed away by the elements. As such we suffer collective lack of infrastructure and loss of our common wealth.
    5. Financial Management and Reporting: At the heart of the fraud at NDDC is the misrepresentation of payments and how they are presented in the accounts for external auditors. The Directorate of Finance & Supply keeps a very close lid on information maintained within its SAGE software to the point where SAGE is kept in a separate network and accessed by very few persons within the Directorate, ostensibly to keep out hackers. The Directorate abets the ongoing looting of the Commission by making questionable payments to favoured contractors who are acting in cahoots with the Executives, prioritising scheduling of payments to contractors who are willing to pay for the ‘service’, hiding of questionable payments within other legitimate transactions and more. Contractors who are not connected wait years for payment for completed works whilst fraudulent payments get prioritised and expressly processed.
    6. Documentation Fraud: During major contract award periods it is standard practice to move the procurement team into hotel accommodation where they can perfect the paperwork in connivance with favoured contractors and produce the documents for at least 3 companies who submit responses to the tenders; the winning company is simply supplying all the ‘competition’ required to fool any external review of the procurement process. The Memos raised during the project monitoring process are also suspect because the word of the field engineer who inspects the project and signs off the field report is what is used to justify the payment certificates raised.  Most of the contents of these field reports will not stand rigorous analysis by independent engineering assessors.

    With about 8,000 projects outstanding and N1 trillion outstanding liabilities, the Commission cannot afford to award any more projects and rather should be focused over the next 4 years on clearing up existing liabilities and sending staff and contractors who have misappropriated public funds to the justice system for prosecution. Perhaps we need an AMCON-like management for the NDDC to clean up the place and institute deep reforms before new project awards can be commenced.

     

    • Hanson, a public affairs analyst and activist wrote in from Lagos.

  • NDDC MD gets NGO’s Award

    For his exemplary leadership since he took seat as the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Sir Bassey Dan Abia, has been honoured with an Excellent Service and Leadership Award.

    Niger Delta Network Advancement Programme (NDNAP), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) committed to addressing problems of poverty, climate change, environmental degradation occasioned by activities of oil companies in the region, said the recognition became necessary following its reality checks of NDDC’s performance in the current dispensation.

    It was at a Dinner and Award ceremony held at the Nature’s Farm Resort, Uyo Village Road, where stakeholders drawn from NDNAP in Nigeria and its international network affiliate, GNDR in London, converged to pass a vote of confidence on Abia’s leadership of the agency.

    Presenting the Award, the President of NDNAP, Comrade Al mustapher Edoho, and the GNDR representative Mr. Chibundu Uchegbu, explained that Mr. Abia’s sterling leadership disposition earned him the Award following approval by the Board of Trustees (BoT), noting that “his achievements in the last 17 months in the saddle clearly stands him out for the honour”.

    Edoho recalled that since its creation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000, the commission had been operating from a rented apartment until the current leadership erected a befitting 12-storey building which now awaits President Muhammadu Buhari’s commissioning.

    Besides, he pointed at various interventions in scholarships,

    development of teaching and learning infrastructures in nine tertiary institutions, road projects, electricity, jobs and human capital development as other key interventions of Dan-Abia era.

    While commending Buhari for his reform measures since he was sworn-in, the group decried what they described as smear campaign against theNDDC leadership.

    Represented by Hon. Anyanga Anyanga, former Chairman of Esit Eket Local Government Area, the MD thanked the group for the honour and prayed God for a sense of direction to steer the commission in line with the essence of its establishment.

     

  • NDDC: our N183b story

    NDDC: our N183b story

    The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dan Abia, yesterday denied the allegation that N183.7 billion was missing from the commission’s account.

    A special periodic check report of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation claimed that N183.7 billion was mismanaged by the commission.

    The Auditor-General of the Federation, Samuel Ukura, insisted the report was correct and directed those not satisfied to be prepared to defend their position before the National Assembly.

    But briefing State House correspondents after leading top officials of the commission to meet President Muhammadu Buhari, Abia denied the claim.

    According to him, he was not the commission’s  managing director during the period the auditor general referred to.

    He said his hands were clean and he would defend the allegation with available records from the commission

    He said: “It is only proper that we should come and brief the President. I requested to meet Mr. President in my capacity as the managing director of NDDC; I was not summoned as reported in the media.

    “We briefed the President on our mandate. As far as the audited account of the NDDC is concerned, how many of us know that the audited account under reference refers to 2008 to 2012. I was not the managing director then. Let’s get that fact clear.

    “The second one on not having no assets I don’t know from when to when. On principle, I came to brief Mr President.

    “Let me assure you that even by the admission of the auditor general, no N180 billion is missing. Because Advanced Payment Guarantee (APG) as you know is governed by advanced payment directives.

    “The Office of the Auditor General is a government agency, whatever clarification, we shall engage the office and proper records will be strengthened. I told the President no N180b is missing.

    “Let me also tell you that I cannot be a party to contract splitting. NDDC is a unique institution, we have a budgeting process. Those people that are now crying, where were they when NDDC was not having project up till the end of the year?”

  • ‘N183b not missing from NDDC’

    The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dan Abia on Wednesday denied the allegation that N183.7 billion was missing from the commission’s account.

    The special periodic check report of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation had claimed that N183.7 billion was mismanaged by the commission.

    The Auditor-General of the Federation, Samuel Ukura, had insisted that his office stand by the report and directed those not satisfied to prepare to defend their position before a special committee of the National Assembly.

    But Abia in a chat with State House Correspondents after leading top officials of the commission to meet President Muhammadu Buhari, said the claim was not true.

    According to him, he was not even the Managing Director of the Commission during the period the AGF mentioned in his report.

    He said his hands are clean and will be ready to defend the allegation with the records available at the commission.

  • Youths threaten to shut down NDDC over N1.05bn contract

    Youths threaten to shut down NDDC over N1.05bn contract

    Hundreds of aggrieved youths from coastal communities in the nine states of the Niger Delta region, yesterday, threatened to shut down the Port Harcourt headquarters of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Rivers State.

    The angry youths said they would shut down the office to protest the refusal of the NDDC to release the balance payment of a N1.05billion contract for clearing of water hyacinth along the creeks and waterways of the region.

    The youths said they completed the job of clearing hyacinth along the coastline and creeks, but wondered why NDDC officials continued to withhold their payment.

    Some of the youths from the Peremabiri and Koluama communities of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, explained that the hyacinth clearing project was awarded by the last administration to over 700 youths from the region.

    They said the contract was part of measures adopted by the last administration to empower youths from the region, and gave the NDDC a14-day ultimatum to release the project fund or risk shutdown of its activities.

    “All the affected youths and representatives of their communities will invade the NDDC office and will not vacate the place until the money is released,” they said.

    But an ex-militant leader and President of the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiatives (LPDCI), ‘General’ Pastor Reuben Wilson, sued for calm, and advised the NDDC to listen to the youths and release the money.

  • Youths threaten to shut down NDDC over N1.05b contract

    Hundreds of aggrieved youths from coastal communities in the nine states of the Niger Delta region on Friday threatened to shut down the Port Harcourt office of the Niger Delta Development Commission.

    The angry youths said they would shut down the office to protest the commission’s refusal to release the balance payment of N1.05billion contract for clearing of water hyacinth along the creeks and waterways in the region.

    The youths said they completed the job of clearing hyacinth along the coastline and creeks but wondered why NDDC officials continued to withhold their payment.

    Some of the youths from the Peremabiri and Koluama communities of Southern Ijaw local council area of Bayelsa State explained that the project was awarded by the last administration to over 700 youths from the region.

    They said the contract was part of measures adopted by the last administration to empower youths from the region.

    The youths said they had given NDDC a 14-day ultimatum to release the project fund or risk shutdown of its activities.

    “All the affected youths and representatives of their communities will invade the NDDC office and will not vacate the place until the money is released,” they said.

    But an ex-militant leader and President of the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiatives (LPDCI), ‘Gen. Reuben Wilson, sued for calm and advised the NDDC to listen to the youths and release the money.

    He said: “The youths are seriously breathing down the neck of the contractors to pay them the money since they had completed the task. The youths have alleged that the money has been paid by the federal government but diverted by some persons.

    “The youths are also aware that the money has been released since the assumption of the present administration.”

  • N183.7 billion: NDDC faults AGF’s report

    N183.7 billion: NDDC faults AGF’s report

    The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) yesterday faulted the Auditor General of the Federation’s report which claimed that N183.7 billion could not be accounted for by the commission.

    The Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura, told journalists in Abuja after submitting three special reports to the National Assembly that N183.7 billion could not be accounted for between 2008 and 2012 audit years.

    But NDCC’s  Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Dr. Henry Ogiri said the report by the AGF was premature and did not follow the ethical standards of accounting profession.

    Dr. Ogiri questioned the timeliness of the report and its motive, adding that the AGF was only playing to the anti corruption tune of President Muhammadu Buhari by releasing the report.

    He wondered why the AGF had to wait five years to audit the commission’s account, adding that the report, which covered 2008 – 2012, did not fall under the current management of the commission.

    Ogiri,who spoke on Focus Nigeria, a weekly programme on African Independent Television (AIT), described the queries in the report as ‘ridiculous,’ adding  that the commission will respond to the queries raised by the AGF’s report.

    He said: “The report did not conform with ethical practices in the accounting profession. It is premature because it has not gone through the process yet. For a report to be meaningful for whatever reason management or board or government will need to use, it must be specific, it must be measurable, it must be accurate, it must be reliable and it must be timely.

    “A five-year report will not be very reliable and accurate for making decisions in 2015. And so I believe strongly that the Auditor General’s report is out of tune with the ethical profession of accountancy discipline.

    “This is a 307 pages document with so many queries with some of them trivialities. But we are determined to respond to them to show that we are in good faith; we are managers indeed and we will take responsibility for explaining the records as far as the records are available.

    “Can we be able to say for certain about the allegation of extra budgetary allocation from which from his report they actually traced the projects done but that money were spent when budget has not been passed. He has reported that as part of the missing money, N90 billion. His argument in his report is that while these payments were made there was no budget.

    “Let me go to some of the other specifics from which clearly we have replied as well; the N70 billion. Now the auditor general has reported that N70 billion was diverted by that management, not our management. “We have a compendium of projects where advance payment guarantees (APGs) were applied. The total APG value covered by this report is in excess of N70 billion. Of that N70 billion, only N11.7 billion is the amount as at when we concluded our audit, our forensic investigation, from which monies have been paid to  the bank but the contractors are yet to mobilise to site. The N11.7 billion is not missing, it is in the bank. We held a meeting and involved our legal department to write to the contractors to refund the monies if they fail to mobilize to the site.

    “We have started the recovery the money. We have dedicated a special account in Heritage Bank on all recovery of APGs. We are not spending it. These are issues we met on ground. The issue of N70 billion pocketed or diverted or missing is completely out of place even though it was done by previous management. The N70 billion is not missing that I can say with all degree of certainty.