Panic As FG Orders NDDC Staff Audit

There is palpable panic and anxiety across the Niger Delta states as the Federal Government has ordered investigation into educational qualification of members of staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Usani Uguru Usani, raised the tension when he directed the management of the commission to immediately proceed with the auditing process during a visit to the interventionist agency, in Port Harcourt, last Friday.
He expressed optimism that the investigation would expose ghost workers and staff members, who gained employment in the commission with forged certificates.
According to him, the Federal Government was committed to purge the commission of sleazy practices with focus to fast track development of the Niger Delta.
“We have observed that there are several people working in NDDC with forged certificates, which is partly responsible for the bad image of the commission.
“Directors of the various departments in the commission are expected to submit the nominal roll of their respective departments to the NDDC Managing Director, Nsima Ekere, within one week.
“We will not tolerate any delay to this directive and as such, failure to submit the nominal roll on or before one week would lead to sanction.
“Any departmental head who signed for a ghost worker would face the music,” he said.
Usani, who was accompanied by the House Committee Chairman on the NDDC, Mr Nicholas Mutu, warned against political interference in the process.
He said, henceforth, political interference in the running of the commission would be resisted, and assured that Federal Government was committed to “governance without partisanship.”
Usani called on the staff of the commission to cooperate with the management during its audit exercise.
“We must from this day hasten our processes within the commission. There is no more room for partisanship.
“We will stop political interference in the NDDC. Any political interference in the commission will be resisted. I assure you, political interference will no longer be an obstacle for the NDDC.”
Usani said that the audit that would be carried out in the NDDC was a presidential directive, which must be complied with as soon as possible.
He said that anyone who constituted an obstacle in the audit process would be shoved out of the way.
“The ministry was buffeted with obstacles when it conducted its own audit. The staff of the ministry tried to frustrate the process,” he said.
In his PowerPoint presentation to the minister, the NDDC Director for Special Duties, Dr Princewill Ekanin, said that political interference was responsible for poor management of the commission’s budget cycle.
He said that poor compliance with internal processes and procedures as well as poor institutional culture was responsible for poorly delivered projects.
He said that the commission was reviewing all its contracts awarded from 2011 to date with a view to terminating unviable ones that did not comply with procurement processes and award acceptance terms.
Other contracts affected were those awarded with no signed agreements, projects with poor performance and abandoned projects.
In his remarks, the Managing Director of NDDC, Mr Nsima Ekere, promised that the management would do all within its powers to ensure credible staff audit that would stand the test of time in compliance with the presidential directive.