Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council on Wednesday gave the nod for the take-off of the N2.5bn Niger Delta Development Commission forensic audit as it granted approval for engagement of field forensic auditors.
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The NDDC had in February this year appointed Olumuyiwa Bashir & Co as the Lead Forensic Audit Consultant for the forensic audit exercise, at the cost of N318m.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, while briefing journalists after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, announced that FEC granted approval to engage eight auditors, amongst them Ernst & Young and Co, an international group of forensic auditors, to carry out the assignment.
Akpabio, who disclosed that N2.5bn was budgeted for the project, said the eight Field Forensic Auditors will earn a total of N722.3m.
“Earlier we had the Lead Forensic Auditor that was approved sometime in March and now we have about eight other forensic auditors who have been approved and they are going to be working in the field in the Niger Delta region,” he said.
With the approval, NDDC can now kick-start the evaluation of its abandoned projects in the last 19 years estimated at almost 12,000 in number, he said.
“At the end, NDDC will be in the position to know the projects that could be completed, the ones that will be useful, the low hanging fruits that could be plucked for the benefit of the people of the Niger Delta region and through this exercise, we will know the amount of monies that have gone into the region in the last 19 years and whether the value we have received so far are commensurate with the monies that have entered into NDDC,” he said.
