President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that a forensic audit of the operations of the Niger Delta Development Commission from 2001 to 2019 be carried out immediately.
Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, said Buhari gave the directive after receiving governors of the states that make up the NDDC in Aso Rock on Thursday.
Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State led the governors.
According to the statement, Buhari was quotes as saying, “I try to follow the Act setting up these institutions especially the NDDC. With the amount of money that the Federal Government has religiously allocated to the NDDC, we will like to see the results on the ground; those that are responsible for that have to explain certain issues.
“The projects said to have been done must be verifiable. You just cannot say you spent so much billions and when the place is visited, one cannot see the structures that have been done. The consultants must also prove that they are competent.
“I am acutely aware, with my experience, that projects in your area are very expensive; that is why if any job is given, we must make sure that the company is competent and has the capacity to do it well with experienced consultants”, he said.
Buhari who was responding to Dickson’s complaint about poor choice of projects, poor execution, uncompleted jobs and lack of the required support for the efforts of the states and local government administration in the area administered by the NDDC, stated that he would wait for the result of the forensic audit before taking further action.
