Senate ad-hoc Committee investigating the alleged financial recklessness in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has recommended the dissolution of the agency’s Interim Management Committee (IMC).
In a detailed report which was submitted to the Senate plenary on Thursday by the Chairman, Senator Olubunmi Adetukunmbi, it was revealed that the NDDC spent N1.334 trillion in five years.
He said the IMC was involved in reckless spending where they spent based on “cash accounting”, and not based on the “budget”.
According to him, the mode of “running the accounting system” by the IMC is an aberration to the act establishing the agency.
He said the IMC spent a whopping sum of N81.5 billion in three months, stressing that the money was not spent on development oriented infrastructure in line with the mandate of the NDDC.
The report also recommended that the NDDC be returned to the presidency for supervision with the setting of supervisory board by governors of the nine Niger Delta States.
It also said the monitoring and advisory bodies recognised by the Act which established the NDDC, should be inaugurated immediately.
The committee lamented the extra-budgetary spending by the IMC which it noted was affecting the people of the Niger Delta.
It noted that the Ministry of Niger Delta has no capacity to implement the forensic audit and therefore demanded that the Auditor General of the Federation should supervise the forensic audit for transparency and efficiency.
The committee also said the Auditor General should appoint internationally renowned audit experts to carry out the exercise.
It added that the N1.4bn spent on COVID -19 by the IMC should be refunded to the NDDC account.
More details to come.
