- How much is involved? This is a knot that must be untied
Nigerians eager to know exactly how much contractors of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) absconded with after collecting mobilisation fees might have to tarry awhile to enable the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation and officials of the commission complete the reconciliation of the accounts on abandoned contracts. What is certain for now is that some of the commission’s contractors collected mobilisation fees and disappeared.
While the auditor-general’s office insists that about N70.4billion was involved in the contract scam between 2008 and 2012, the commission claims it is not more than N11billion. The development arose from the report presented to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts last week by the assistant director, public accounts division in the auditor-general’s office, Mr Emmanuel Akpan, which claimed that about 1,733 NDDC contractors disappeared after collecting N70.4billion.
According to Akpan, “The real value of contracts upon which monies have been collected by NDDC contractors during the period under review, as of the time of auditing, was N70.4 billion and not N11 billion the NDDC office is claiming now.
“There is the need for NDDC officials to practically prove that contractors involved in close to N60 billion gap they are trying to create have actually gone to site and executed their projects not on paper, but physically on ground”.
But the commission, in response to a query from the auditor-general’s office, insisted that the amount involved was N11billion. NDDC’s Director of Finance, Jimoh Egbejule, said the commission had, on its own, audited the various projects awarded during the period under review, and discovered that the said scam affected N11 billion worth of projects and not N70.4 billion as reported by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
It was when the two parties could not agree on the actual amount involved that the Senator Andy Uba-led committee adjourned sitting by one month to enable them reconcile their books and come up with an acceptable figure. “There is the need to stop this public hearing abruptly, so as to allow the three parties time to sit down and harmonise their findings and reports on the subject matter.
“Definitely, this committee is not satisfied with what has happened, but we have to give them time to meet and harmonise whatever they can before coming back to us to present their updated reports, upon which we can now do the proper probing without one agency saying it doesn’t have the reports the other is presenting,” Senator Uba said.
We agree with the committee on the need for reconciliation of reports by the parties. But one thing is clear, and that is the fact that some NDDC contractors collected money without executing their contracts. This is bad enough; irrespective of the amount involved. Even if it is one million naira, we must be worried.
The commission was established in 2000 to facilitate the rapid and sustainable development of the Niger Delta and make it economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful. For an oil-producing region, these are laudable objectives. Government’s failure to address the challenges of oil pollution and also compensate the people of the region for the despoliation of their land and other issues associated with oil exploitation had in the past led to various crises between people in the region and the oil companies on the one hand, and the people and government on the other.
It therefore would amount to a great disservice for any contactor to get money for the development of the region without executing the contract. The relevant agencies should within the stipulated one month reconcile their accounts and come up with the actual amount that the contractors absconded with.
Thereafter, the culprits should be apprehended and prosecuted alongside their accomplices in the commission. It has always been the impression that contracts are not necessarily meant to be executed if the players can grease the palms of certain public officials. This dispensation should not condone such practices.
