By Gbenga Abulude
As the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) imbroglio rages on with more disclosures, the Transparency and Accountability Advancement Group (TAAG), an anti-corruption advocacy group based in the Niger Delta, has stated that the NDDC, does not need new Executive Director Finance and Administration (EDFA), to pay overseas scholarship students.
The group rejected the purported statement credited to the Director of Corporate Affairs at the Niger Delta Development Commission, saying that students on NDDC scholarship abroad have not been paid because the Commission cannot make payments from its domiciliary account without an Executive Director Finance and Administration (EDFA). The Transparency and Accountability Advancement group, described the above statement as lie, advising President Muhammadu Buhari to be careful with those he appointed into office.
The group noted that the NDDC financial regulations have made adequate provisions to meet its financial obligations, even in the absence of its Executive Management. The group added that since May 2020 when the EDFA died, the interim management committee (IMC) has been transferring funds from the same domiciliary account to Naira account with the CBN for the payments they have been making.
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The statement signed by the advocacy group Director of Information and Strategy, Mr Damian Nwikinaka reads in part:
“The narrative that the payment for the overseas scholarships has not been done because of the absence of the EDFA is yet another falsehood by the IMC calculated at deceiving the Federal Government.
The domiciliary account of NDDC is domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the Managing Director/CEO as the approving authority for any payment or transfer from the domiciliary account. There are four other signatories to the account.
“These are the EDFA in Category ‘A’, with the Director of Finance as Alternate; and the Executive Director, Projects in Category ‘B’, with the Director, Project Monitoring & Supervision (DPMS) as Alternate. Any of the ‘A’ and ‘B’ signatories can sign for payments to be made from the domiciliary account with the approval of the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer. No transfer or payment can be made without the approval of the Managing Director/CEO, and not the EDFA
By the provision of the signatory categories, in the absence of the EDFA, as has been the case since May, the Director of Finance steps in as signatory. Both the Director of Finance and the Director of Project Monitoring and Supervision are staff (bureaucrats) in the NDDC and they are available to make such payments. In fact the NDDC has been making payments since the Acting EDFA died in May.
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” We urge President Buhari and the Federal Executive Council to be very circumspect of Akpabio’s schemes and not allow themselves to be used to further his fraudulent agenda at the NDDC.
“We stand by the Senate resolutions based on the report of its Adhoc Committee, which investigated and discovered large-scale fraud and financial recklessness against the IMC.”
