Presidential c'ttee indicts NDDC on poor performance

The Presidential Committee on the monitoring of activities of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, returned a damning verdict on the activities of the commission since its inception, saying that the commission's activities were characterised by abandoned projects, unjustified and arbitrary variation of projects costs and retention of incompetent contractors.

Submitting its report to President Goodluck Jonathan,  yesterday, Chairman of the Committee, Chief Isaac Jemide, called on the Federal Government to urgently implement the recommendations contained in the report in order to reposition the commission to perform its intended role.

President Jonathan, who received the report, thanked members of the committee for a job well done and promised that government will study the report and take necessary action.

While presenting the executive summary of the report, Chief Jemide said that his committee undertook a 'painstaking inspection, assessment and evaluation of projects and programmes executed by NNDC, as well as other relevant activities. Specifically, I wish to report to Mr. President that a total of 609 projects spread across the three states were physically inspected and evaluated. Of the 609 projects monitored, 222 (36.5%) were completed, 102 (16.7%) are on-going and 285 (46.8%) were abandoned at various levels of completion. The monitoring of 1,510 projects for the period 2005-2011 in the remaining six NNDC states had been completed and the reports are being compiled for submission to Mr. President.

'To further enrich its findings, the committee interacted with host communities, stakeholders, NDDC contractors and officials and discussed grey areas, with a view to correcting the anomalies identified in the course of the project inspections. The details of the projects monitored and the specific recommendations thereon are contained in the report.'