I refer to the article on page 6 of BusinessDay dated 22 December, 2015.
It’s rather very unfortunate that an institution set up to better the lives of the average Niger Delta person has been kidnapped by political thugs to the detriment of the mass populace. Several articles have been written with regard to the in-depth corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) since inception till date, ranging from diversion of funds meant for project to other personal/group interest, most of which are in direct conflict with the objectives of the commission.
Your recent article with regard to the sack of Dan-Abia and the appointment of Ibim Semenitari as acting managing director of the commission is rather viewed as a breath of fresh air, with the hope that the impunity which the commission has come to be known for will not continue in line with the “CHANGE” slogan which the incumbent party has come to be known for.
The last paragraph – which reads, “Ibim may inherit a list of abandoned projects worth over N1.5 trillion” – triggers the question, where are the monies?
It is commonsense to assume that if monies where disbursed for project payments and the projects were not executed, the cash should be domiciled with the commission, but you and I know that this is not the case here.
Nevertheless, another side to abandoned project assumption is the fact that most of these projects, especially the ones where work has begun, cannot and should not be tagged as abandoned until investigated and verified to be so because most of them have been executed by the contractors and awaiting payment based on milestone agreement with the commission in line with the award letters.
Some of the contractors actually mobilize to the site and actually achieve a milestone on the project with funds borrowed from financial institutions and other alternative sources of funding in order to expedite the project execution in lieu of payment of mobilization (15 percent) and IPC based on valuation of permanent work done. So, where these payments are not made as at when due, the contractors are left to groan under huge debt burden which makes the continuation of the project to completion to be delayed.
Also it will surprise you to know that the fund made for such projects might have been diverted to other project payments where the contractors have not moved to site using it as a conduit to divert such fund to other private/group uses.
In conclusion, Ibim Sememitari might not actually be inheriting N1.5 trillion worth of abandoned projects; rather, it might be a case of misappropriated fund leading to N1.5 trillion outstanding payments for work done by contractors.
The above said, it behooves on Ibim Semenitari and her team to review and articulate all such projects where the contractors have executed work without mobilization in lieu of payment and fashion out a way of making such payments to the affected contractors so that the seeming loads of abandoned projects can begin to reduce for the betterment of the affected host communities. I am very optimistic that things will change for the better in the commission.
Stanley Zebulon
President/CEO
Venerate Capital Limited
Ikeja, Lagos
