07 March 2013, Abuja – The Presidential Committee, which monitored the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has rated the commission’s performance since it commenced operation as low.
The committee,which submitted its report to President Goodluck Jonathan, Tuesday in Abuja, ruled that the activities of the commission were characterised by abandoned projects, unjustified and arbitrary variation of projects costs and retention of incompetent contractors.
Submitting the report, chairman of the committee, Chief Isaac Jemide, urged urgent implementation of the committee recommendations so as to reposition the commission to perform its intended role.
While receiving the report, President Jonathan thanked members of the committee for a job well done and promised that government will study the report and take necessary action.
Chief Jemide presented the executive summary of the report to the president, maintaining that his committee undertook a “painstaking inspection, assessment and evaluation of projects and programmes executed by NNDC, as well as other relevant activities”.
“Specifically, I wish to report to Mr. President that a total of 609 projects spread across the three states were physically inspected and evaluated. Of the 609 projects monitored, 222 (36.5%) were completed, 102 (16.7%) are on-going and 285 (46.8%) were abandoned at various levels of completion.
“The monitoring of 1,510 projects for the period 2005-2011 in the remaining six NNDC states had been completed and the reports are being compiled for submission to Mr. President.
“To further enrich its findings, the committee interacted with host communities, stakeholders, NDDC contractors and officials and discussed grey areas, with a view to correcting the anomalies identified in the course of the project inspections.
“The details of the projects monitored and the specific recommendations thereon are contained in the report.”
