NDDC Contractors Lament Payment Delay

Contractors executing
projects for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have cried out over unnecessary delay in payment for jobs executed for the commission.
The contractors, who spoke under the aegis of Contractors Association of Niger Delta Development Commission (CANDDC) lamented that some of their members had not been paid by agency even when they had completed their contract execution for over four years ago.
President of the association, Mr Joe Adia, who decried the negative impact of the delay in their members’ businesses, revealed that some of the contractors had died from frustrations arising from the delayed payment.
According to the group’s president, executing such contracts involves borrowing from the banks and delaying such payments accumulates much bank interest at the detriment of the contractors.
He said, several efforts had been made to meet with the acting Managing Director of NDDC, Mrs Ibim Semenitari, to discuss the debt owed contractors and to find out how they could be paid.
He explained that the group could not get any reply to several letters written to the NDDC boss to that effect but alleged that they were invited by the Department of State Security (DSS), when they threatened to embark on protest.
The acting MD of NDDC had expressed dissatisfaction over the poor attitudes of contractors to the handling of most contracts and that investigations were onto that effect.
However, The Tide gathered that claims made by the CANDDC were being investigated by a committee set up to look into their demands.

Chris Oluoh