By Hamilton Nwosa(Head, The New Diplomat’s Business and data tracking desk)
The Nigerian National Assembly was thrown into a state of bewilderment on Tuesday following the failure of officials of the Interim Management Commission, IMC of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to provide satisfactory answers as to the whereabouts of N143b out of the N305.5b released to the agency in the 2019 budget.
This was on the occasion of the National Assembly’s joint committee on Niger Delta Affairs quizzing officials of the NDDC as part of its oversight role in the affairs of the commission. As a result, the budget defence session of the Commission that had been taking place at the Assembly was consequently suspended.
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In the build-up to the fray, the NDDC’s Interim Management Committee (IMC) led by Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei had appeared before the committee to defend its 2019 budget expenditure in addition to presenting the commission’s fresh 2020 budget proposals as required by law.
While presenting the 2019 budget expenditure before the committee, Pondei informed the lawmakers that the Commission had received a total of N305.5b in 2019, out of which it had spent N122b, with the proceeding fact being that there would be a balance of about N183.2b.
Pondei also affirmed that in compliance with provisions of the 2019 Appropriation Act, the NDDC had implemented the 2019 capital budget till May 31.
“On expenditure, implementation of the 2019 budget was hindered by delays in its approval and release coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic. Only recurrent expenditure, which runs from January 1 to December 31 2019 was implemented substantially,” Pondei noted.
Responding to the presentation, the Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on NDDC, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, averred that there were ensuing discrepancies, adding that from his own checks a shortfall of N143b had arisen.
He stated that of the N305.5b that was acknowledged as duly released to the NDDC in the 2019 budget, the commission had outlined that it spent a total of N122.3b. According to him then, the balance of funds left in the commission’s kitty then ought to have been N183b, but the NDDC had now brought forward only N40b leaving out N143b.
Broken down then, the commission was therefore expected to bring forward a balance of N183.2b in the 2020 budget proposal as yet unspent funds. However, in the report submitted to the committee by the IMC, only N40b was brought forward.
When the Chairman, House Committee on Niger Delta queried Pondei on the discrepancies, the IMC chief requested to withdraw the entire 2019 budget details to enable him address the question of the discrepancies of N143b that Hon. Tunji-Ojo had raised.
At this point though, the lawmakers were upset that Pondei was asking for the withdrawal of the 2019 budget review that had been duly submitted to it to enable him go back and thereafter return for a re-presentation exercise. At the end however, the Chairman, Senate Committee on NDDC, Peter Nwaoboshi, granted Pondei’s request and adjourned the budget presentation exercise till next week Tuesday.
