The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation insists it stands by its audit report on the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, saying the Commission has a case to answer.
The Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura, also urged the NDDC or any other person dissatisfied with the Report to take advantage of the opportunity to defend themselves before the Public Accounts Committees, PACs, of the National Assembly.
Ukura said this in a statement signed on his behalf by the Deputy Director, Media & Public Relations, Mr. Olawunmi Ogunmosunle in Abuja.
“The attention of the Management of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation has been drawn to the claims by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in some electronic and print media denying and casting aspersions on the Special Periodic Checks recently submitted to the National Assembly.
“Ordinarily, the Management of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation would not have considered it worthy to join issues with the former.
“Nevertheless, the Office make bold its statement public, based on the negative sentiments occasioned by the NDDC’s condemnation of the Special Periodic Checks, calculated to demean the efficacy of the constitutional mandate carried out by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
“It is noteworthy to state that it took NDDC, 16 months to grant the Office permission to commence the periodic checks beginning from 9th December, 2011 to 6th May, 2013. Similarly, it took another 16 months and several reminders to the NDDC with effect from the 24th of April, 2014 to 12th August, 2015 before the final report was submitted to the National Assembly.
“It may interest the reading publics to know that at the time of this Press Release, the NDDC is yet to respond to the Special Periodic Checks.
“It is pertinent to state unequivocally that the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation has a constitutional mandate to submit its Reports to the National Assembly and in doing so, due process are usually followed.
“It is therefore important to let the NDDC and the public know that the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation stands by the Special Periodic Checks on the NDDC and its contents.
“However, any person or corporate organization that is not satisfied with the contents of the Special Report has opportunity to defend itself before the Public Accounts Committees (PACs) of the National Assembly,” he stated.
The Auditor-General, had about a week ago stated that N183.7 billion could not be accounted for by auditors who conducted a special check on the NDDC from 2008 to 2012.
Ukura, who stated this after submitting three special reports to the National Assembly, said a lot of discrepancies were noticed in the NDDC account, adding that about N183.7 billion is expected to be refunded to the federation.
He revealed that the outstanding sum included the N70.4 billion unaccounted for from the mobilisation of various contractors that never reported to site. It also included “the N5.8 billion paid to contractors for projects not executed or abandoned. N90.5 billion was spent on extra budgetary expenditure without approval by legal authorities, while un-deducted taxes from contractors are N1.2 billion.”
