***Blames commission’s failure to pay huge debt on NASS embargo
THE Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has lamented that its 2019 budget was never implemented because its approval by the National Assembly (NASS) came only six weeks before its expiration.
NDDC Director, Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili, expressed the lamentation Monday in Port Harcourt, Rivers state while appealing for quick approval of the 2020 budget of the commission.
Odili further blamed NASS for NDDC’s failure, under current Interim Management Committee (IMC), to defray about N2trillion debt the commission owes majorly road contractors under the emergency repairs era.
He said: “NASS has instructed us not to pay for road projects and most of the contractual obligations we owe to our contractors who are complaining are those who have done majorly road projects.
“So, we have an instruction from the NASS not to pay and we are abiding by this instruction. When it is lifted, all our contractors, especially those who have done road jobs will get their payments.
“The Commission has a debt portfolio of about N2 trillion. A large percentage of the N2 trillion has to do with emergency projects. When the budget doesn’t come on time as at when due, some managements have taken to this line of action to solve an emergency.
“Oftentimes because the budget is not available, the emergency often runs for a long time and this is rather unfortunate. It is not a thing that we are continuing with. But we are dealing with it as something that happened in the past.”
Odili said: “The Commission has paid historical debts amounting to about N33Billion from the inception of the expanded IMC on February 20, 2020. The amount cover debts to our vendors; some persons owed between N1 million and N3 million, some for over seven or eight years.”
Harping on the need for early budget approval for the NDDC, Odili noted that, “Once that is done a lot of things, actions will be expedited. When there is a staccato of voices, where there is a lack of unanimity of purpose, as we have seen in recent times, the Niger Delta region suffers for it.”
