The management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) indulges in control splitting to outwit the supervising minister and evade approval, Niger Delta Affairs Minister Godswill Akpabio, said on Monday.
Akpabio who spoke before the House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta in Abuja, alleged that the agency spent “over N4.2 billion in a day in tranches of N49 million.”
He said he also discovered that the agent found had paid N2.9 billion to a contractor for Lassa Fever and was about to pay another N572 million before he stopped it.
On the allegation that the agency had been awarding contracts without going through the procurement process and signing of necessary documents, the minister said only three contracts had been awarded since his assumption of office.
The minister hinted that in all the contracting processes, both the technical and financial bidding processes were conducted before they were awarded.
Akpabio, however, claimed that NDDC managers have been splitting contracts to evade his signature, saying he has no hands in the contract payments by the agency as government regulation does not allow ministers to pay for parastatals’ contracts.
He said: “It is not my business to approve payment for parastatal. Where they can come to me is when the payment is above N1 billion.
Even at that, I must go to FEC to get approval.”
The minister said because of contract splitting, a minister could stay for four years in the ministry without knowing what was going on in the agency.
“Over N4.2 billion was spent in a day in tranches of N49 million,” the minister told the panel.
The management of the agency can award contracts less than N50 million while the board has the threshold of N500 million.
On the forensic audit ordered last year by President Muhammadu Buhari, he said the exercise was ongoing contrary, to Ms. Joi Nunieh’s claim that the audit had not kicked off.
He added that nobody would have expected that the account of the agency would not be audited after 19 years of its existence.
In a rather rowdy session, Akpabio said N2.5 billion for the forensic audit was included in the 2019 budget of the agency.
Amid the shout of ‘Hon. minister, it’s ok’; ‘Hon. minister, off your mic’, the minister kept talking, even when members urged him to stop his presentation.
Akapabio alleged that lawmakers benfit more from NDDC contracts.
He said: “Who are the greatest beneficiaries? It’s you people now…because if you look at your chairman…
“Are you asking me the benefits to National Assembly? I just told you that we have records to show that most of the contracts of NDDC are given to members of the National Assembly, but you don’t know about it. The two chairmen can explain to you. Let me explain…”
Akpabio however said “no” when asked whether he got a contract while in the Senate.
When asked if he had been usurping the powers of past managing directors and to what extent he had influenced or exercised such powers in the agency, Akpabio said: “If I find out that the MD of NDDC is not acting in the interest of the Niger Delta people, I will intervene. I had to do that once when I heard about the payment for Lassa fever. I called and found out that they had paid N2.9 billion and they were about to pay another N572 million. I had to intervene to say they should not because there was no budget at that time. The contractor wrote to me to approve N572 million.”
Akpabio also denied Ms. Joi Nunieh’s allegations that she got his approval to share N10 billion from NDDC coffers to contractors.
