*Partners NCDMB
Mkpoikana Udoma
09 September 2018, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — The Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Properties, SPIP has said that it is an economic sabotage for oil firms not to remit one percent from every contract in the oil and gas industry to the Nigerian Content Development Fund, NCDF.
To this end, the Panel has pledged to support and collaborate with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, in the recovery of unremitted one percent deductions for the NCDF, from defaulting oil and gas firms in the country.
Chairman, Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Barr. Okoi Obono-Obla, stated these when he paid a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote.
Obla, who is also the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Prosecutions, explained that his Panel was empowered to investigate people and organizations whose activities have contributed to the economic adversity of the country.
According to him, “We are aware that NCDMB is mandated by law to get one percent from every contract in the oil and gas industry for development of Nigerian Content.
“We are willing to partner with the Board to prosecute companies that default and ensure recovery of the fund to the Board, because non-remittance to the Nigerian Content Development Fund is economic sabotage,” Obla stated.
Responding, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote expressed delight with the offer to support the Board in the recovery of unremitted deductions for the NCDF.
Wabote disclosed that the Board will soon begin a forensic audit of companies to ascertain the level of remittance into the Nigerian Content Development Fund.
He assured the Chairman of SPIP on NCDMB’s readiness to partner with the Panel in ensuring that firms not remitting to the NCDF are duly sanctioned.
“We will ensure that through this collaboration between the two agencies that we bring some level of discipline among stakeholders that they have obligations to meet and laws to obey,” Wabote said.
