Some residents of Port Harcourt have expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of jobs delivered by the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), calling for scrutiny of the commission’s activities.
The residents, including Chief Michael Uchendu and Mr Chibuike Moses, in an interview with The Tide claimed that most jobs were either abandoned or left half way.
According to them, the problem of the commission was not that of poor funding but its inability to judiciously use funds allocated to it.
“Governments, over a long period of time, have tried their best to develop the Niger Delta region. So what are our people in the NDDC doing to complement the effort of the government.
“So if the Federal Government is doing its best in improving the region, then let there be an eye opening,” one of them said.
Also, a resident who lives at the NTA area of Port Harcourt explained that among the four streets that link to his area, a contract awarded by NDDC was done half way and abandoned.
“I live at NTA Road and in our street, they just did the first part of the job and left and the other part of the street that links to the express was left out and has become a refuse dump”, he said.
Moses and Uchendu attributed some of the abandoned jobs to negligence of contractual terms by most indigenous contractors that see the opportunity as their right and those who see such contracts as political settlements.
“One of the problems we have now is with indigenous contractors because when you give them jobs they will not finish them and treat them as no body’s property”, he said.
The respondents, however, called for an effective monitoring of contracts and revocation of contracts that  are not delivered as at when due.
They said since there is a recession facing the nation, there was need for strict adherence to contractual terms in order to conserve funds for other infrastructural development to cushion the effect of the recession on the majority of the people.