The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has denied allegations that some funds it received for the on going Ogoni clean-up exercise were missing, saying the body has so far received $180million.
The Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Dr. Marvin Dekil, disclosed this in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, during a live radio programme monitored by The Tide, recently.
It would be recalled that HPREP was set up by the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on the pollution in Ogoni land, Rivers State.
Dekil, who was reacting to allegations in some quarters that the clean-up funds may have been diverted due to the prolonged delay in implementing the UNEP report, explained that the initial cost of the clean-up was $1billion, but that the cost could be more.
“Let us start by asking how much is the process going to cost? The process is going to cost an initial $1billion. That is what we need to start with to my understanding. It is going to cost more, I believe.
“How much have we received? We received an initial $10million, and recently, another $170million. So, we have received $180million.
“That is what the Board of Trustees of HYPREP has received. Each time I talk about this money, I am very particular, and I have to let people understand the governing structure of HYPREP, and the different roles played by these structures.
“It is the Board of Trustees (BoT) that is in charge of receiving this money. They function separately from the project coordination office. Remediation is an international activity. If you cost it in local ways, you may not appreciate what we are doing.
“The way it works is that the BoT collects the money, and they are holding it. They are managing it. It has nothing to do with project coordination office. There is the Governing Council that approves all our activities. They are the approving and policy making part of the project, separate from the BoT, and separate from the project coordination office,” he stated.
The HYPREP project coordinator further said that “Just this month (August), my team and the United Nations team and the oil companies just finished with the budget this year, and we are looking at the activities between now and December. That will cost, I think, about $80million. These are the things that we are going to do.
“That we have the money, even if the entire $1billion was given to us now, it doesn’t mean that we are going to spend all of it just like that. You need to come up with detailed programmes and have the buy-in of all the stakeholders to what it is you want to do with the money before you spend it.
“This is how difficult it is to spend the money. So, when they are talking about ‘you have received $180million, what have you done with it? The money is there. We are taking it as we need and as all the parties agreed that it will be spent. When I talk about the parties, I am talking about the three governing structures.
“I am also talking about the stakeholders, being the oil companies, the United Nations system, the Nigerian government. We are driving this process and the Ogoni people who are also part of this administration and the policy making of this will all have to agree on how to spend the money and what to do with it within the context of the recommendations of the United Nations.
“This is what we have been doing. And you see frequently we are going back to Geneva because that is where the technical capacity, the leadership of UNEP is. So, we don’t take one step without synchronizing the input of all who are on this. So, not a dime of our money will be spent without the input of others, and so, no money is missing,” Dekil stated.

Dennis Naku