OAGF, CBN, IMC DISAGREE OVER AMOUNTS SPENT BY NDDC, HOW PONDEI BLEW 2.1 BIL IN 7 MONTHS WHILE JOI NUNIEH SPENT 17MIL IN 4 MONTHS ON PUBLICITY

Sunday Aborisade, Abuja

THE record of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation showed that the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission spent N2.1bn on public communication between October 2019 and May 2020.

The agency presented a conflicting record of N1.1bn in its submission to the Senate ad hoc investigative panel report.

The report obtained by our correspondent in Abuja revealed that the CBN and the OAGF agreed that the agency spent N2.1bn, contrary to the IMC record of N1.1bn.

According to the report, the IMC under the Joi Nunieh leadership as managing director spent N17m between October 31, 2019 and February 18, 2020, while the IMC under Prof. Daniel Pondei, spent the rest between February 19 and May 31, 2020.

The report read in part, “It must be noted that the expenditure record for the heading is about N2.1bn in the report of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria, shows an under-declaration in the NDDC figure.

“The management in its record, under IMC-1, spent N17m on media outreach, while the Expanded IMC spent a more significant amount of N1.1bn in the NDDC records.”

Apart from that, the CBN, OAGF and the management presented three different payments by the NDDC between October 31, 2019 and May this year.

For instance, the CBN presented to the panel, a record of N92, 233,216,061, OAGF presented N82,495,259,314 while the NDDC record showed N81,549,894,866, as total amount spent by the agency during the period.

Copyright PUNCH.