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NDDC
Headquarters, Port Harcourt
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In pursuit of his
anti-graft crusade, President Muhammadu Buhari may have to beam his searchlight
on the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
If
the findings and documents obtained by Saturday Vanguard are anything to go by,
the NDDC is panning out as a cesspool of corruption. The
documents indicate that the agency, which is being supervised by the Presidency
through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, has
brazenly ignored the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, PPA, in the
award of contracts for projects and services, thereby allowing its cronies to
smile home with huge amounts of public funds.
Vanguard report continues:
Over-shooting contract
limit
The
2007 PPA sets limits on contracts that key officials of the commission
can award; what the board can approve; what should be sent to the Bureau of
Public Procurement, BPP, and what the Federal Executive Council should handle,
in the spirit of transparency and accountability.
Under
the PPA, the Managing Director of the NDDC, can award contracts that are not
above N200 million while the board can approve jobs that are not above N1
billion. Specifically, any job above N1 billion must be subjected to a
competitive bidding process and awarded by the FEC after being processed by the
BPP, another agency under the Presidency.
Contract-splitting
However,
findings show that the NDDC management has chosen to use contract-splitting as
a weapon to award huge contracts beyond its limit without passing through the
BPP, thereby making it possible for ‘insiders and their associates,’
particularly influential political elements, to make away with billions of
Naira from the commission.
Ignored
Jonathan’s directive
The
commission under the current board, appeared to have ignored former President
Goodluck Jonathan’s directive to it not to award new contracts but to strive to
complete abandoned ones so as to clear the backlog of funds being owed local
contractors.
Contract bazaar
Contrary
to the Presidential directive, the new board embarked on contract bazaar within
the first two weeks of its inauguration actively acquiring even second-hand
exotic vehicles at the cost of new ones.
Documents
at the disposal of Saturday Vanguard show that within its first two weeks the
managing director single-handedly issued a local purchasing order, LPO, valued
at N888,175,500 million to a Port Harcourt-based car dealer to supply 40
assorted vehicles.
Of
the vehicles ordered, four were armoured Sport Utility Lexus and Land-cruiser
vehicles valued at N213.8 million. It is not clear when the vehicles were
supplied and who is using them.
Shortly
after the acquisition of the expensive vehicles, the commission ordered the
procurement of security vehicles for the Nigeria Police at the cost of N12.5
billion to enable the police provide adequate security for the nine Niger Delta
states of Abia, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Delta, Edo
and Ondo.
However,
to prevent the huge contract from getting to the BPP and the FEC for scrutiny
and approval, the commission carefully split the supply job into 12 slots and
awarded it at the cost of N985 million to each of the contractors.
Not
done, the NDDC shortly after awarded another contract worth N2.7b to 30 limited
liability companies suspected to be owned by close associates of key officials
for what it called “Intelligence-gathering and management.” Each of the 30
firms got N99.7 million from the NDDC for the job which should have been
handled by the security agencies.
The
contract bazaar was quickly followed by another award of N1.6 billion job
carefully split among 85 companies for the ‘procurement, transportation and
delivery’ of waste disposal trucks to the commission.
Each
of the ‘lucky’ contractors got between N61 million to N835 million
depending on the strength of their connections with the top hierarchy of the
agency and influential politicians managing the commission.
Internal disagreement
The
contract bazaar has even led to some disagreement between the board and some accounting/procurement
officials.
In
one very despicable case, the commission ignored the professional audit
query/advice not to award a ‘Quick-impact’ job valued at N715 million to one
person to act as both contractor and consultant.
Brewing trouble
But
trouble is currently brewing in the commission following the resolve of some
aggrieved management staff and top officials to expose the rot in the
establishment, leading to the release of financial malfeasance that has been
going on in the place since the last board was inaugurated in November, 2013.
One
of the documents indicate that the sum of N1.3 billion was approved and
released for NDDC Christian Fellowship and NDDC Children and Disable families
end-of-the-year parties.
While
the Christian Fellowship reportedly received N500 million, the NDDC children
and disable families got N800 million.
The
commission is also said to have inexplicably moved the sum of N100 billion from
its Access Bank account on Agip Road branch to an undisclosed location, in the
heat of the last election, in which Buhari won thereby raising eyebrow among
staff and stakeholders.
Petitions
Several
petitions have been fired to the Presidency to move against the board and
urgently launch a full scale probe into the operations and finances of the
NDDC, whose contractual obligations now stand at a frightening N800 billion as
of the end of July.
The
debt is said to have risen exponentially following the award of frivolous and
politically-motivated contracts to individuals and groups by the sacked board
in the run-up to the last election.
NIDESTAF petition
One
of the petitions now before the Presidency and the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC was written by Niger Delta Stakeholders Forum,
NIDESTAF.
In
the petition dated June 15, 2015 and signed by the President, Benson Georgewill
and National Secretary, Timi Oghalle, the stakeholders pleaded with Buhari to
urgently raise a probe panel to ascertain the true position of the
finances of the NDDC.
The
group also asked the President to take steps to retrieve the funds of the
commission from those found to have illegally taken them.
Director to brief Buhari
The
happenings in the commission are said to have infuriated the supervisory
department in the OSFG. It was learned that a director in the Presidency has
decided to brief PMB, next week, on the massive fraud in the NDCC so as to
clear his name and office.
Presidency, NDDC
officials speak
But
when contacted, the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Mr. Femi
Adesina, said he was not aware of what the President intends to do with the
NDCC.
Adesina
said the President has not also mandated him to make any categorical statement
on the agency.
The
Head of Public Affairs of the NDDC, Mr. Ibitoye Abosede, declined to comment on
the situation, saying he has no information regarding the issues.
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