* The Acting Managing Director of Commission, Niger Delta Development Kemebradikumo Pondei, * Source : Channels Tv
As the probe on the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC), by the House of Representatives continues, the Acting Managing Director of Commission, Niger Delta Development Kemebradikumo Pondei, today informed the House of Representatives’ Ad hoc Committee investigating the activities of the agency that N1.32 billion was spent as ‘COVID-19 relief funds’ for members of staff.
Pondei had sometimes ago at a Senate hearing about a fortnight ago, Pondei had said NDDC spent N1.5 billion to take care of staff, besides their salaries.
According to Pondei, “The youth were given palliatives to help cushion the effect of the pandemic on the people. The youth were idle and to avoid violence, they were paid. N5 million for youths and N5, million for women and five million for people living with disabilities in each senatorial district.”
However, on interrogation by the committee today, he said he must have said N1.5 billion while he was not attentive.
Speaking further, he said, “We used N1.32 billion, not N1.5 billion, to take care of ourselves as COVID-19 relief funds. The amount the IMC used to take care of NDDC staff as COVID-19 palliative was N1.32 billion, not N1.5 billion,”
Honourable Thomas Ereyitomi, who took over after the chairman stepped aside at the start of the hearing over allegations of bias. Pondei also disagreed with the committee that the commission had extra-budgetary spending by approving that sum for themselves.
He also said N81.5 billion was spent from October 2019 to May 31, this year by the NDDC.
Of this, he explained that the incumbent interim management committee he heads, which came in February spent N59.1 billion.
“Of this, N38.6 billion was spent on capital projects. N35.3 billion was paid to contractors hired by previous administrations.”
He added that N20.5 billion was spent on recurrent expenditure between February 20, 2019 and May 21, this year.
“They are a backlog of debt for about three years. Duty tour allowances haven’t been paid for three years; we cleared it. Scholarship fees haven’t been paid since 2016,” he said, adding that the NDDC paid N500,000 to each beneficiary.
He also told the committee that the commission paid a contractor N641 million for the completion of what he called ‘turning point road’ in Asaba and over N500 million to a consultant to identify NDDC projects in different parts of the nine Niger Delta states.
