The Senator Andy Uba led Senate Committee on Public Accounts were on Monday told by the Auditor General for the Federation and the Office of the Accountant General for the Federation that contractors of Niger Delta Development Commission in connivance with former officials mobilised over N70 billion contract fee between 2008 to 2012 but were not on site.
In a unanimous presentation, both offices revealed that the joint forensic audit of the Commission and on the spot assessment showed that the contractors in connivance with officials of the agency, who were mobilised did not care to execute the contracts.
He explained that the Commission neither reacted to audit query nor attempted recovery based on their recommendation.
They disclosed that what the former management were rather doing was to encourage those contractors who may be their cronies not to bother about queries raised.
Mr Emmanuel Akpan, an Assistant Director, who stood in for Auditor General of the Federation gave this revelation when he was asked to read the query.
“Our investigation into the over N267Billion contracts awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission between 2008 and 2012 revealed that the Commission had during the immediate past Management mobilised it’s contractors through Bank bonds to the tune of over N70Billion, but were not on site”, he said.
Mr Akpan lamented that the office sent copies of audit query to the Commission for three consecutive times without a reply, a situation he said had created disharmony, which was confirmed by the Committee Chairman.
“We have since raised a query to the Commission, but they would not answer”, he noted.
In response, Director of Finance and Supply, who was virtually disgusted maintained that the Commission did engage a forensic Audit Consultant who submitted that the amount involved was only N11 Billion and not N70Billion.
“Distinguished Committee Chairman and members, we engaged a consultant based on the Auditor General’s query and they discovered it was only N11billion mobilisation”, Egbejule said.
Meanwhile, the Acting Managing Director, Mrs Ibim. Semenitari said that the Commission had started recovery process through Banks that were involved in the bonds.
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