The rumble that greeted the setting up of the forensic audit to excavate past financial records and bring to the fore the accounts of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has died down.
The appointment and inauguration of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) led by an erudite lawyer/activist, Dr. Joi Nunieh, to midwife the forensic audit of the NDDC from 2000 to 2019 has received a new boost to withstand any conceivable hurdles.
The sack of the Pius Odubu-led board after it was confirmed by the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari nailed rancour and controversy that would have sparked a row between the IMC and the board which would have been headed by Dr. Odubu.
For the workability of the six-month mandated IMC, the Federal Government is said to have allegedly contracted international accounting firm to assist in auditing contracts awarded by the commission over the years, Straightnews investigation has shown.
The online newspaper learned that the government is alleged to be exploring having a UAE- based company to lead the audit especially in the light of the recent arrest of Mr. Mohammed Adoke, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, over the Malabu Oil financial scam.
Nigeria had earlier signed the Mutual Assistance Treaty with the authorities in UAE, hence the arrest and return of Mr. Adoke to Abuja is seen as a product of the treaty.
An anonymous source in the commission said “This is done in order to gain international acceptability and avoid local rancour in the selection of the coordinator for the exercise. The company will undertake the job together with other financial matters to uncover the actual expenditures of the NDDC.”
“A princely sum of N3.5 billion is alleged to be paid to uncover how the gargantuan sum running into trillions of naira was said to have been expended in almost two decades but rather little to show,” the source stated.
Another source quoted a high ranking officer in the NDDC, saying “It is not too much to pay for forensic audit of such a key institution as NDDC, so as to ensure that the trillions of naira budgeted and released for the programmes to start anew for the people of the Niger Delta Region to begin to see the dividends of democracy.”
Speaking with Straightnews reporter on the forensic audit, Mr. Anietie Ekong, a Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, said “the Federal Government may announce qualified companies for the job this week. The award has to undergo due process. In this case, the award was sent to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPE) for approval and advertisement was made. The companies bidding for the jobs for at least one month.
“Thereafter, the bids will be opened to check the technical competence of the companies. The awards will be for 10 slots- nine for the nine oil-producing states in the NDDC. The remaining one will be centrally controlled at the headquarters to coordinate the activities of the nine. As of last time, the process of selecting the preferred bidders was done. Once the announcement is made, the forensic audit will commence in earnest.”
Responding to a question about the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Ministry, Senator Godswill Akpabio visiting Dubai recently to seal the contract with an international accounting company that will assist in the auditing, Ekong said the minister has not visited the country for a long time now.
On the accounting company alleged to have been awarded part of the auditing, he said he was not aware of it.
However, he said, “some international accounting firms and indigenous ones have bided for the audit, though the government has not announced successful fims yet.”
