NDDC's 2019 budget padded by NASS with 500 non-existing projects - MD
- NDDC's acting MD, Kemebradikumo Pondei, said the commission's 2019 budget was augmented by the National Assembly
- In a response to President Buhari's order of forensic audit into the commission, Pondei said the padding went as far as over 500 non-existing projects
- The MD expressed worry that the commission has been reduced to petty designs instead of championing major intervention projects
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Kemebradikumo Pondei, acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has alleged that the agency's budget in 2019 was inflated with about 500 fake projects by the National Assembly.
Pondei made the disclosure on Tuesday, May 26, while responding to allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds levelled against the interim management committee.
Addressing journalists in Rivers state, the NDDC's acting MD said the discovery was made while investigating the 2019 appropriation to the commission.
Source: UGC
“We discovered that after NDDC forwarded its budget to the national assembly committees on NDDC, what was sent back to the commission was no longer recognisable,” Pondei said.
“The 2019 budget was classically over padded, with almost 500 new projects inserted to it when it was sent back to us.
“We found out the budget appropriation was done in such a way that meaningful projects were allocated very little sums of money."
It would be recalled that President Muhamadu Buhari had ordered a forensic audit of NDDC finances.
The audit was a major step in unravelling corruption and misappropriation of funds against the commission but in a reaction, Pondei said no single project has been carried out.
He expressed worry that NDDC has been reduced to petty engagement like erecting street lights and constructing drainage, something local governments should do.
Pondei also said that the allegation against the IMC was being peddled by people afraid of the forensic audit which will help discover how corruption has sunken deeper in the agency's past administrations.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that Buba Galadima, one of Nigeria's foremost politicians, has revealed the alleged reasons why former military dictator, Sani Abacha, stashed billions of dollars belonging to the Nigerian government out of the country.
Since the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria has been receiving billions of dollars reportedly looted by Abacha from foreign governments.
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