•Deplore N90m budget for workers’ marriages, funerals, others
Julius Toba, Abuja
MEMBERS of the House of Representatives yesterday expressed dismay over what they called imbalances and bogus budgetary allocations in the 2010 Budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) with a resolve to vet its past and future spending.
The lawmakers revealed that only 25 per cent of the N129 billon provided for the commission in the 2009 Budget was spent, while its management failed to disclose the whereabouts of the rest.
Some also complained about the N6 billion budgeted for overhead by the commission for this year, describing it as bogus.
Besides, they scored the NDDC low in the area of quality job execution.
It was during a debate on a bill to appropriate money for the commission at the House.
Deputy Speaker Usman Bayero Nafada, who presided over yesterday’s sitting, lamented that President Goodluck Jonathan’s letter, requesting for N236.5 billion for the NDDC for this year, failed to indicate how much was not spent from the previous budget, which, according to him, must be statutorily returned to the Federation Account.
Before the House passed the bill for a second reading yesterday, Nafada had earlier directed the Chairman, House Committee on the NDDC, Mutu Nicholas, to present on the floor of the House, in a few days’ time, the books of the commission in the last 10 years.
According to the Chairman, House Committee on Business and Rules, Ita Enang, “the House should mandate its NDDC committee to improve the standard of their works. NDDC has failed to form a synergy with state governments of communities where they carry out capital projects”.
Halims Agoda, who had last week described the lateness of the letter from the Presidency as a sign of unseriousness on the part of NDDC, again reiterated his position, but urged the House to monitor full implementation of the budget.
Saadatu Sani also described as unnecessary the voting of over N90 million for items, such as funerals, marriages and deliverables in the budget for workers of the commission, while millions of Niger Deltans are living in deplorable conditions.
Patrick Obayagbon, in his contribution, described one decade of NDDC as a waste of national resources, claiming that youth restiveness and unemployment had not reduced in the region.
