NDDC fails to show approval evidence of 1,691 contracts

THE Senate Committee on Public Accounts has indicted the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) over alleged lack of accountability.

This came as the commission failed to show the lawmakers evidence of approval of some 1,691 contracts.

The committee, which interacted with the NDDC on Wednesday, discovered that the commission could not provide evidence for approval of 1,691 contracts out of the a total  1,697 contracts awarded by the commission between 2014 and 2016.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Andy Uba, directed the commission to, within seven days, furnish it with evidence of approval of all the contracts and relevant certificate of no objection from Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).

The commission was also queried for running 22 bank accounts before the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA), whereas only four were approved for it by the government.

The Senate Committee also questioned the huge tax debt profile of N28.7 billion incurred by the commission against the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and ordered it to start offsetting the debt.