By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja
The Auditor-General of the Federation, and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), yesterday disagreed over the amount of mobilisation fee which contractors defrauded the commission for contracts spread across the Niger Delta region.
While the Auditor General insisted in a report presented yesterday to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts (SPAC) that a whooping sum of over N70 billion remained unaccounted for awarded projects, the NDDC on the contrary gave a figure of N11 billion.
According to the office of the Auditor-General, corrupt contractors handling various projects of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), between 2008 and 2012, disappeared with N70 billion mobilisation fees without going to site let alone, executing the projects.
Making the shocking disclosure before members of the Senate committee, Mr. Emmanuel Akpan, an Assistant Director, Public Accounts Committee Division in the office, said the NDDC’s office in response to a query issued it by the Office of the Auditor-General, over the ugly development, said projects worth N11 billion were affected by the scam.
He argued further in his submissions to the committee that the Auditor- General’s office, based on findings made so far, however strongly believes that the total sum of the scam is N70,495, 993, 761, approximately, N70.4billion.
“The real value of contracts upon which monies have been collected by NDDC contractors during the period under review, as at the time of auditing, was N70.4billion and not N11billion the NDDC office is claiming now.
He further disclosed that not less than 1, 733 contractors were involved in the scam.
The Commission’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 N11billion worth projects and not N70.4billion as reported by the Office of the Auditor-General.
The contradictions which arose from the submissions made by the Niger Delta Development Commission and Office of the Auditor-General made the committee chairman, Senator Andy Uba (PDP Anambra South) to adjourn the sitting for a month.
He said “There is need to stop this public hearing abruptly so as to allow the three parties time to sit down and harmonize their findings and reports on the subject matter”.
