By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr.
Umana Okon Umana has said that nobody is trying to stall the constitution of the substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) just as the Federal Government has approved a revised additional sum of N765,974,975.50 to cover the additional works done by the Forensic Auditors.
The Minister disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at State House, Abuja.
According to Umana the delay in the constitution of the NDDC board is not deliberate, adding that the process to put up the board together has started but will have to follow the due proces as directed by President Buhari.
Said he: “Let me start by saying that, as the Minister, I am very anxious to have the board oversee the affairs of the NDDC. And the position of the federal government also is that they should be board to oversee the affairs of the NDDC, in line with the provisions of the extent law”.
“That position has been very consistence. If you look at the records, the President has submitted names of nominees for the board to the Senate, when the Senate reacted, there were litigations about whether what was done was in line with the position of the law”.
“And while that was being addressed, we had the issue of the Forensic Audit. And the position of the President, when once the audit was instituted, he made it very clear that he will wait for the conclusion, the outcome of the Forensic Audit, before the board will be constituted”.
“That was his position and he stated the position very clearly. Now, the report was submitted, the submission of the report is not the conclusion. If you must understand how government works, report is submitted, the findings have to be acted upon. And how do you act on the findings? The Forensic Audit was like an inquiry”.
Explaining further the Minister said:
“Usually when governments Institutes an inquiry, the findings will go back to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and a White Paper will be issued. We are at the stage of concluding on that, the reports of the findings of the audit will go to Federal Executive Council”.
“The White Paper is then the decisions of the federal government on the findings of the Forensic Audit. Of course, with the White Paper released, those who committed infractions will be called to account and whatever government has to do governments will then proceed to do so. So, we are at the stage of concluding on that. And I can very conveniently say that the constitution of the board will follow immediately thereafter”.
“Nobody is trying to stall the constitution of the board. Nobody. I want the board in place, because it would make my work run smoothly. But we must also follow the new process, conclude on this report and the white paper is issued. So that is the position”, Umana concluded.
Meanwhile, the Niger Delta Minister has told State House Correspondents that FEC has approved the memo on the additional costs of carrying out the Forensic Audit on NDDC to the tune of additional sum of N765,974,975.50 to cover the additional works done by the Forensic Auditors.
According to him: “Today at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, the memo on the additional costs of carrying out the forensic audit is the size of was considered and approved by council. You’ll recall that for for this exercise, a lead Consultant was appointed who had to work with 16 other field auditors and the initial contract zone which covered the lead consultants and the field forensic auditors was N1.786 billion.
“These auditors have since concluded their work but in the cost of carrying out this work, it was discovered that they had to deal with many more projects than were initially envisaged. And the exercise also took an additional seven months.
“The total number of additional projects considered by the auditors was 3,773. So for reasons of the additional number of projects and the additional time taken, Council today approved a revised additional sum of N765,974,975.50 to cover the additional works done by the forensic auditors”.
