REVEALED: NDDC Bosses Take 30% From Every Contract Money

The Senate has revealed that the head of the Interim Management Committee, IMC, of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Prof Kemebradikumo Pondei, and other members of the committee collected between 20 and 30 pe rcent of contract sums before contractors were paid.

This is contained in a report by the Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi (APC, Ekiti North) led Ad-hoc Committee that investigated alleged financial recklessness to the tune of N40 billion in the NDDC by the IMC.

But the NDDC in a swift reaction, said no such thing happened, stressing that Pondei collected no kickbacks from any contractor before awarding them contracts.

However, the report obtained by Vanguard indicated that claims by the IMC and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, that the headquarters of the commission is 95 per cent completed is false.

The report showed that the NDDC got a total sum of N74.655billion in eight months between October 29, 2019, and May 31, 2020. According to the report, the NDDC got the revenue from oil companies, the Federal Government’s statutory allocation to the interventionist agency, and tender-bidding fees.

The Senate Committee report said the revelations were made by the Chairman, Contractors Association of NDDC, Mr Joe Adia, in a written submission to it.

The report read: “The claim of IMC of the NDDC of paying contractors with less than N50 million is totally untrue as there are over 500 transformer installations with payments of less than N4.5 million that had not been made for eight years.

“That the new head of IMC, Prof Pondei and other members of IMC are now collecting 20 per cent to 30 per cent of contract sums before contractors are paid.”

According to Adia in his submission, the immediate past acting Managing Director of the Commission, Mrs Joi Nunieh, had stopped all contractors from accessing the commission till the completion of the forensic audit and this made it difficult for contractors to seek payment for projects they executed.

The report also stated: “The contractors that were paid are those that have access to the IMC and known to them and the real contractors that did their jobs judiciously were not paid.”