There was a mild drama in the Senate on Monday as the Auditor-General for the Federation, the Accountant General of the Federation and the Niger Delta Development Commission disagreed over N70.4 billion fathom contracts in the Niger Delta.
The Auditor General in the report submitted to the Senate Committee on Public Account revealed that N70.4 billion were collected as mobilization payments by 1,723 contractors without going to site.
The Accountant General of the Federation also concurred with report of the AG on massive fathom contract that was perpetuated in the NDCC between 2008 and 2012.
However, the representatives of the NDDC, Jimoh Egbejula, claimed that the amount of fathom contract is N11 billion.
The details of massive fathom contracts in the NDCC was contained in a document obtained by our correspondent.
The paper was titled: “The Report on Special Periodic checks on the Activities of Niger Delta Development Commission for the Period between 2008-2012.”
The Auditor-General for the Federation, represented by Emmanuel Akpan, explained that it is a common practice for the commission’s contractors to collect mobilization and refuse to move to site.
Akpan said records available to the team revealed that N70.4 billion were collected as mobilization payments by 1,723 contractors without going to site.
The report submitted to Committee reads in part: “Records available to the team revealed that the sum of N70 billion were collected as mobilization payments by 1,723 contractors without going to site.
“90 percent of these contracts were awarded between 2011 to 2012. It needs to be stated that some of these contractors have three to four jobs without reporting site.
“One can therefore imagine why the region is not developed, when a developmental programme is being awarded as contract to be completed within six months and the contractors would collect mobilization without reporting to site.
“It is common practice for the Commission contractors to collect mobilization and refuse to move top site. The blame for this should not only go to the contractors but equally to the management of NDDC who awarded projects that were not in existence (contract without identification of site) resulting to non-reporting to site by the contractors.
“Beside the above, it was also observed that about 50 percent of the contractors who claimed they have have executed their various contracts to specification and completed with supported engineer’s valuation certificate were later found out by the team that some merely collected for work not executed.
“In the auditor’s opinion, these ugly trend will continue in the system inasmuch as the same class of people are recycling in the management and board for the commission.”
The Auditor General recommended that the money should be recovered and evidence of the recovery should be forwarded to his office.
The audited report also revealed that 46 various contracts were awarded by the Commission, which contract sum ranges from N6 million to N300 million, totalling N5.1 billion, but were not provided for in the budget.
Responding to the disagreement, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Andy Uba, gave the commission a month to go and study the report of the Auditor General on the NDCC and report back to the committee.
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