Business
Elder Statesman Supports NDDC’s Forensic Audit …Wants Immediate Payment Of Genuine Contractors
An elder statesman and one of the founding fathers of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Jasper Jumbo, has called on the management of the commission to use the period of forensic auditing to pay genuine contractors who are being owed a backlog of money.
The elder statesman also called on the NDDC to ensure that forensic auditors engaged to audit the accounts of the commission are paid at the end of the exercise without delay.
Chief Jumbo, who is the head of the Jumbo major house in Grand Bonny, made the call while speaking to aviation correspondents last Friday, in Port Harcourt.
He noted that a lot of genuine contractors who did good jobs for the commission were suffering because they are not yet paid.
According to him, paying them would help reduce their suffering.
He said that the forensic auditing is one of the steps being taken to put the NDDC back on track, and as well restore accountability in the commission.
“I am one of the protagonists asking for the setting up of forensic audit because the place was stinking. NDDC is no longer the commission we set up.
“I wrote the blueprint for NDDC and the then OMPADEC. What we as founding fathers saw was no longer what we originated.
“So I went to the National Assembly, and I called on Mr President to set up an investigation into the activities of the commission, which he commendably did, and God will bless him because we do not have another major source that touches the lives of our people.
“A lot of money have come into the commission without much being seen. No legacy project is seen, but trillions of naira have gone down the drain.
“ By the time they finish the forensic auditing, there will be a lot of sanity because people will know that government can bite”, Jumbo said.
The elder statesman, however, expressed reservation on the payment of those that will be engaged in the forensic auditing, pointing out that it is not just to engage the forensic auditors, but that they should be paid at the end of the exercise.
He also urged the commission to look for a way to engage the youths, so as to engender peace in the region.
Corlins Walter
Business
NAFDAC Decries Circulation Of Prohibited Food Items In markets …….Orders Vendors’ Immediate Cessation Of Dealings With Products
Importers, market traders, and supermarket operators have therefore, been directed to immediately cease all dealings in these items and to notify their supply chain partners to halt transactions involving prohibited products.
The agency emphasized that failure to comply will attract strict enforcement measures, including seizure and destruction of goods, suspension or revocation of operational licences, and prosecution under relevant laws.
The statement said “The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised an alarm over the growing incidence of smuggling, sale, and distribution of regulated food products such as pasta, noodles, sugar, and tomato paste currently found in markets across the country.
“These products are expressly listed on the Federal Government’s Customs Prohibition List and are not permitted for importation”.
NAFDAC also called on other government bodies, including the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service(NIS) Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Shippers Council, and the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), to collaborate in enforcing the ban on these unsafe products.
