Senate rejects N1.4 trillion illegally spent by NDDC, orders probe

By Adekunle Adesuji and Jonas Ezeike

 

The senate  on Tuesday  rejected N1.4 trillion illegally spent by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), between 2021 and 2022

 

It was learnt that the Commission’s budgets  for 2021 and 2022 were not approved by the Senate.

 

 

A breakdown of NDDC Budget for 2021 revealed that  N485.7 Billion  was spent while N928 .2 billion was incurred in 2022 by the Interventionist agency for Niger Delta.

 

This is even  as the upper chamber also stepped down consideration of the 2023 Budget estimate  of N485.7 billion  for NDDC.

 

Meanwhile, the Senate has  set up adhoc committee to investigate unauthorized spending by the Interim management within two years.

 

The resolution of the lawmakers was sequel to the  concerns raised after the report of the Senate committee on NDDC was presented on the floor of the senate by the committee vice chairman senator Amos Bulus for consideration.

 

 

The report generated argument among lawmakers who  argued  that an agency cannot spend monies not approved and  submit Budget for approval after spending .

 

 

 

According to Senator Seriake Dickson , the  2023 budget is not the product of the duly inaugurated board and management of the NDDC

 

 

Senator Olamilekan in his submission also raised observation that the agency has started spending the 2023 budget yet to be approved by the National Assembly which is a clear violation of constitutional provision.

 

 

He added that aside violation of the constitution, the document can not go further lamenting what the document submitted to the committee contained was only debit and credit of varrious department of the commission.

 

Also kicking against the budget, Senator Adamu Ailero  told his colleagues that there is no need for us to consider budget because the monies have already been spent adding that NDDC only brought the budget for us to formalize it and the Senate will not formalize illegality.

 

He explained it is unconstitutional to give approval to already.spent budget .

 

Senator Ailero therefore moved a motion for the Senate to investigate the NDDC over spending without authorization of the National Assembly and it was seconded by Senator Adeola Olamilekan.

 

 

Members of the adhoc committee were Yusuf Yusuf (Chairman), Seriake Dickson, Abdullahi Yahaya, Seidu Alkali, Sodique Suleiman, Uche Ekwunife and Olubunmi Adetunmibi.

 

The Senate gave the adhoc committee one week to submit the report.

 

 

Senator Barinada Mpigi had claimed that Senator Dickson was part of the committee when the NDDC board appeared before the committee and he did not raise any objection to the issue .

 

But, the former of Bayelsa state refuted that he didn’t sign the NDDC budget document presented to the Senate for consideration.

 

He said that the budget is not product of the board and the Management of NDDC that was approved by the National Assembly demanding that the Senate should step down the budget

 

However, An Ad-hoc  Committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday began investigation into the proposed production of electronic International passport by the Nigerian Immigration Service NIS by HID global Consortium Limited a private company contracted by the federal government for its production

 

The House in a motion moved by Hon. Mohammed Adamu Alkali on Tuesday May 2nd 2023 had constituted and mandated the panel to probe the issue including the outsourcing of the production of the e-passport by the relevant ministries and government agencies.

 

The House Committee vide a letter dated May 3, 2023 had extended invitations to the Minister of Interior Engr Rauf Aregbesola, the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service NIS, the Managing Director of HID Global Consortium Limited and other key stakeholders to appear to explain their role in the processing of the document

 

The House Committee Chairman Hon.Hafiz Kawo said that that from the documents available to the probe panel, there were four companies that bided for the contract for the  production of the e-passport out of only HID Global Consortium Limited was chosen and awarded the contact.

 

He expressed worries on the scarcity of the e-passports noting that many Nigerian citizens had paid for these travelling documents and yet could not access them easily.

 

He pointed out that no other country in Africa is facing the challenge of accessing its travelling documents more than Nigeria yet huge funds are budgeted by government for the production of the e-passports.

 

The Comptroller-General Nigeria Immigration Service NIS Mr Isah Jere who made presentation before the House Ad-hoc Committee  said that all the contracts was signed by the Ministry of Interior.

 

He said that the production of the e-passports was outsourced to HID Global Consortium Limited by the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company due to scarcity of foreign exchange and other issues.

 

He also told the committee that out of 10 million copies of the e-passports contacted by the agency, only 6.7 million copies were produced by the company leaving a balance of 3.3 million not accounted for.

 

The House Committee also grilled the other invited stakeholders including the Management of HID Global Consortium Limited which said that the company in 2022 was contacted by the NSPMC and delivered 1.9 million passport booklets to Nigerians.

 

But the lawmakers said that the House probe panel is not satsfied with the presentations made before it by the invited stakeholders and demanded for the approval documents from the Ministry of Interior for the e-passports.