Reps uncover budget fraud at NDDC as activist urges Senate to halt confirmation of commission’s nominees

The House of Representatives has revealed that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is still operating on the 2018 budget approved by the National Assembly.

Chairman of the House Committee on NDDC, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made the revelation at the inaugural sitting of the committee in Abuja.

His words, “As we speak, the commission is yet to submit its 2019 appropriation to the National Assembly for approval in line with the Act that set it up, not to talk of the 2020 estimate.

“Section 18 (1) of the NDDC states: ‘The board shall not later than September 30 submit to the National Assembly through President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces an estimate of the expenditure and income of the commission during the succeeding year for approval.

“Today is October 9 and the commission is yet to bring the budget for the 2019 fiscal year not to talk of 2020 which Mr. President submitted before the Assembly on Tuesday. What has the commission been operating with?”

On the way forward, he promised that the committee would seek to improve its budgetary and oversight processes to curb corruption and waste, ensure fiscal discipline and promote good governance in line with the laws of the land.

Meanwhile, rights advocate, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor, has urged the Senate to stay action on the nominees announced by President Muhammadu Buhari for the NDDC board pending the resolution of ‘grievances’ in certain quarters.

At a press briefing yesterday in Lagos, she noted that she had initiated legal action to right the perceived anomalies in the list.

The Igba of Warri kingdom contended that the nomination of former deputy governor of Edo State, Dr. Pius Odubu, as chair of the incoming team ‘violated’ the alphabetical rotational order for the chairmanship of the interventionist agency as enshrined in its enabling law, especially Section 4 of the NDDC Act 2000.

The presidency also nominated Bernard Okumagba as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the agency.

The women leader maintained that it was the turn of Delta State to also produce the chair since it followed Cross River, which produced the last occupant, in alphabetical order.

She recalled that since the inception of the organisation, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Cross River had produced its chairmanship.