SLEAZE IN NIGER DELTA MINISTRY RESPONSIBLE FOR POOR PERFORMANCE

CONTRACT VIOLATION; BANE OF POOR PERFORMANCE BY THE NIGER DELTA MINISTRY

The factors responsible for the stunted growth of the Niger Delta Ministry, has been traced to the violation of contract award process, sleaze and other issues.

This was the findings of a report by a Ministerial Technical Audit Committee on the Contracts awarded by the Ministry between 2009 and 2015.

Recall, the Niger Delta Ministry was a creation by the government of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2008 to oversee the region’s development and improvement.

Most of the contracts awarded in the oil-rich region according to the Committee’s report, has had no impact on the people. It also revealed that only N427 billion, representing 60 per cent out of N700 billion, budgeted for the Ministry during the period, was disbursed while projects worth over N273 billion for which had been paid for cannot be accounted for, says the report.

Created as a special purpose vehicle to facilitate the development of the region, the Niger Delta Ministry is reported not to have impacted purposefully for the people of the region with the following states being the beneficiaries; they are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

The committee which was set up this year by the Honourable Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry, its task is to evaluate and prioritize the projects embarked upon by the Ministry in the nine Niger Delta states based on the availability of funds and overall impact on the living conditions of the benefitting communities.

The committee’s report has however, recommended the termination of six projects while urging the refund of the amount collected on two others.

“All projects were to achieve the objective of enhancing socio-economic activities, human capital development and environmental protection of the region”.

“Sadly, very insignificant numbers of projects have reached practical completion to provide the sense of belonging expected by Niger Deltans across board”, the committee stated in its report.

“About 80% of the projects are either on-going, abandoned after payments, total abdication or refusal to deliver as in the case of Youth Capacity Building Programmes”.

“The well intended Federal Government intervention programme in the Niger Delta Region was poorly implemented six years after flag-off with serious consequences,” the report stated.

The total cost of projects the committee said it found out within the period was N700,538,741,691.30 excluding services (security, rent and facility management), adding that N446,421,385,864.41 was certified for payment but N423,172,256,347.84 was paid.

“In other words, between 2009 and 2015, about 60% of contracts awarded were paid, but approximately 40% of work was practically achieved”.

Juxtaposing its finding from the project sites against fact retrieved from available documents domiciled in the departments that supervised the projects, the committee observed that ‘there was violation of contract award process”.

The way billions of naira are mentioned in construction projects value in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has become so banal that very soon, it is believed that they are likely to escalate to trillions of naira, even though the values do not appear realistic vis-à-vis the value added to the region through such contracts”, it stated.

Right from the cycle of procurement planning to contract award, the committee claimed it noticed “inconsistencies with the provisions of vital aspects of the Procurement Act”.

Accordingly, prominent amongst other issues of violation, the committee observed “indiscriminate award of contract by initiating and benefiting departments without the leading and guiding role of the procurement department”.

“Awards never took cognizance of availability of funds and annual appropriation provisions, the structure and content of some contract agreements were loose for checks and balances, indeed hardly protected the interest of the ministry in case of disputes.”

On delivery and capacity, the Ministerial Technical Audit Committee said the imminent picture of abandoned and uncompleted projects was as disturbing as the retinue of projects that extremely exceeded the dates of completion.

“This manifestly, emanated from inconsistency in government annual budgetary provision and lack of capacity to deliver especially where funds released do not correspond with performance”.

“Most contracts were awarded with specific dates of completion but were not captured in subsequent appropriations. This further exacerbated contractors’ poor performance and inability to achieve project objectives. Consequently, no capital project was completed within the stipulated time frame”, it said.