Senate set for showdown with NDE over public works programme

Senate Public Account Committee has launched an investigation into the Public Works Programme coordinated by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in which 774,000 Nigerians were recruited with the mandate of engaging 1,000 people per local government.

Federal government earmarked N52 billion for the project in 2020 in which 774,000 Nigerians were paid N20,000 each for three months.

However, at the Committee sitting of Senate Public Accounts chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide, the lawmakers gave the NDE two weeks to submit a comprehensive report of the beneficiaries of scheme in 36 states of the country and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The committee which is currently investigating expenditure of Service Wide Votes (SWV) discovered that NDE collected N26 billion for the scheme in 2020.

However, drama ensued at the committee meeting on Tuesday when all seven senators that were present at the meeting said that none of their constituent members benefited from the scheme.

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Senator Thompson Sekibo (Rivers East) said that nobody benefited from his Senatorial district from the programme, adding that all names submitted by lawmakers were not considered.

Also, Senator Michael Nnachi (Ebonyi South) said no single person benefited from his Senatorial district, adding that the NDE should make available a beneficiaries list from his Senatorial district.

The committee members therefore unanimously agreed that the NDE should submit names, phones number, and account details of the 1,000 beneficiaries in each 774 local government within one week.

But, the representative of NDE who is a director of the agency, Isah Abdul appealed to the Committee to give the agency three weeks to compile the list of beneficiaries.

However, the committee declined and gave the agency two weeks to submit the list.