Reps to give accelerated hearing to audit reports on NDDC, NBET

The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Account, Rep. Wole Oke (PDP-Osun) has pledged accelerated hearing in Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc audit reports.

Oke gave the assurance on Tuesday in Abuja, after confirming that the committee received the reports from the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAuGF) on the agencies.

“Yes, we now have the Auditor General of the Federation’ report on NDDC from 2013 to 2018, as well NBET from 2017 to 2019 respectively.

“I assure Nigerians that both reports would be given accelerated consideration upon resumption from  current annual vacation,”he said.

Read Also:N40bn probe: Reps C’ttee orders arrest of NDDC acting MD(Opens in a new browser tab)

Some of the queries issued in the report on the NDDC included payment of medical check-up expenses to part-time board members to a tone of N459.350 million.

The OAuGF also queried excessive payment of imprest to the Executive Board members to a tone of N1.3 billion and engagement and payment of external solicitors for N1.5 billion without the consent of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation

The query includes: irregularities in the award of contracts for logistic and consultation services at a cost of N199 million and award of emergency contracts without stating the contract prices to the tune of three billion Naira.

Others are doubtful commissioning of consultants for the studies and design projects after the award and execution of the relevant projects to the tune of N485 million.

Also payments of rent to a legal advocate on a property belonging to the Rivers Government, but released to the Federal Government which houses the NDDC Headquarters to the tune of N1.2 billion and N698 million being payment of rent to retired generals for regional security surveillance on NDDC projects without evidence of service delivery were also queried.

In the same vein, the OAuGF queried NBET for non-submission of annual audited financial statements for six years between 2014 and 2019.

The report also questioned payments for the contract not executed to a tune of N20 million, variation of the contract without approval to a tune of N4.8 million and unauthorised payment of N85.6 million for international training without approval.

Oke said the agencies will be invited to respond to the irregular expenditures queried by the OAuGF. (NAN)