Oronsanye to the rescue at NDDC

Note:  This is a very instructive article, wirth a read.

Sun News

12 August 2011

Oronsanye to the rescue at NDDC

By Kenneth Kurubo

 

In view of the lingering crises within the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, the presidency has constituted a committee that is expected to investigate the causes of the crises and proffer long-lasting solutions.

The committee was inaugurated last week with former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Steve Oronsanye, appointed as chairman. Other members of the 8-man committee are Lagos-based lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, B. O. N. Oti, representative of the Bureau for Public Procurement, Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw, Mrs. Koripama-Agari, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim and Raymond Brown, who will serve as secretary.

The committee’s terms of reference include evaluating the roles and relationship of the board, management and staff of the commission as well as the procurement practices of the commission and its compliance with the laid down rules and regulations of the Public Procurement Act.

It is also expected to look into the institutionalisation of the orientation of the rank and file of the commission while putting into proper perspective fund management and compliance or otherwise of the commission with the public service rules and extant civil service rules and regulations. At the inauguration of the committee, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, was unequivocal and unsparing in his outright condemnation of the internal wrangling in the commission saying, “There are allegations of irregularities in the management of the resources of the commission and these are parts of what the presidential committee should look into with a view to finding solutions to them.” He also implored the committee to look into the complaints of improper implementation of projects and arbitrary award of contracts

Indeed, the award of contracts is one of the key ingredients of the NDDC imbroglio. The Public Procurement Act makes it clear that the MD/CEO is the head of the Tenders Board while heads of departments are automatic members. This, in effect, means that Chibuzor Ugwoha as MD of the commission has the power to award contracts worth N250 million and below. Contracts between N250 million and N1 billion have to go to the ministerial tenders board while only the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) can award contracts above N1bn.

This law had been in existence two years before Ugwoha became MD, but the board, in active connivance with the management of the NDDC did not agree to this apparently. Pastor Power Aginighan as executive director, Finance and Administration and Essioek Etteh, executive director, Projects would not want to be a party to this. In their reckoning, the NDDC Operation Manual of 2002 was what they needed to operate. It is in a bid to correct this anomaly that the duo, who had been in the NDDC for years with Aginighan even appointed as acting managing director during the transition process that brought Ugwuoha into office, has been at daggers drawn with the younger Ugwoha. When the crisis started to snowball, a memo from the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), asserted that every project, no matter the amount of pressure, must be taken up by the Tenders Board of the Commission.