Akpabio submits NDDC audit to Buhari

The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, has submitted the Forensic Audit Report on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to President Muhammadu Buhari, while noting that 13,000 projects were abandoned in the Region.

Akpabio submitted the report to the President through the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, in Abuja, on Thursday.

While submitting the audit report which had raised a lot of tension in the oil producing region, Akpabio said:

“The report of the audit committee showed that there are over 13,000 abandoned projects in the Niger Delta and even before the submission of the report, some contractors have returned to site on their own and completed about 77 road projects.

“Although the exercise had a checkered history, I thank Mr President and all those who supported and ensured its success.”

He stressed that the exercise was not done to witch-hunt anyone, but to ensure that the huge sums of funds committed to the area yearly are justified.

He lamented that the region had remained backward since 1958 in spite of successive governments’ efforts through the creation of various interventionist programmes and projects.

Also Read: Latest update on the NDDC Probe

In his remarks shortly before he handed over the report, Akpabio, disclosed that the forensic audit covered a total of 13,777 contracts that were awarded from 2001 to 2019 at a final contract value of over N3trillion.

“I welcome you all to the presentation of the Report on the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Commission (NDDC), which report I am to receive on behalf of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.

“You will recall the President had ordered for a holistic forensic audit of the activities of the Commission from inception to August 2019 in response to the yearnings of the people the Niger Delta Region to reposition it for effective service delivery.

“It is imperative to state that, the call for the audit by the people of the Niger Delta Region arose from the huge gaps between resources invested in the region vis a vis the huge gap in infrastructural, human and economic development.”

The Lead Forensic Auditor, Alhaji Kabir Ahmed, in a brief overview of the report, said that the team recommended managerial as well as structural changes, chief of which is the downsizing of the NDDC’s board.

He added that to reduce cost the of running the NNDC, members of the team should henceforth be appointed on a part-time basis.

The Forensic Audit of the NNDC was ordered by President Buhari early this year as a way of curtailing the corruption that had pervaded the interventionist agency for so many years.