NDDC Forensic Audit: group challenges IMC to publish names of International Audit Firms

The Global Forum for Accountability and Transparency, Nigeria, a nonpartisan pressure group, has challenged the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission to publish the names of the firms handling the much publicised forensic audit of the Commission.

It insisted that it was not enough for the Commission to claim that four international auditing firms were involved in the forensic audit without naming the companies.

Founder and Lead Executive Director of the group, Joseph Ambakederimo, in a statement in Abuja, noted that the people of the Niger Delta region cannot continue to be deceived.

The group questioned why the identities of the firms were being shielded, adding that the process adopted in the selection of the auditing firms violated the Procurement Act.

The statement read in part, “if we may ask what is so sacrosanct that the names of those four companies cannot be made public and why is it only the Nigerian Company that is mentioned, we did not see the representative of any of the other four companies on the day the documents were purported to have been handed over to the auditors to commence the forensic investigations.

“No name of any such company was mentioned by the Ag. Managing Director Prof. Pondei yet the Executive Director Project, Cairo Ojougbo, claimed four international reputable companies are engaged to carry out the forensic audit.
“The issue of the selection process of the auditing firm is another matter that borders on abuse of the Procurement Act as they often do in the NDDC.

The selection process was not transparent because we just heard from out of the blues that a certain amount of money has been approved by the Federal Executive Council to be paid to a company whose profile or competence we do not know.

“We have searched all of the internet to see their reference for previous jobs done but nothing of such and we wonder how is this company become an international reputable one to take on the task of such enormous work”.

The group further slammed the Interim Management Committee for trivialising ‘serious’ allegations of corruption leveled against it, adding that “it has become incontrovertibly clear that indeed funds have been mismanaged, outright stealing of resources and abuse of power has occurred.

“We see the attempt by these two men trivializing very serious matters of allegations of corruption hanging over their heads like an albatross goes to show that they do not only recognize the gravity of what is before them but the response put forward by the EDP further put them in the awkward position of distrust when he claimed that four international reputable auditing firms are involved in the forensic audit in the NDDC without naming the companies”.

It continued that, “as the controversy on allegations of corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) rages on with each single day unearthing new allegations and counter-allegations one thing has become incontrovertibly clear that indeed funds have been mismanaged, outright stealing of resources and abuse of power has occurred.

“Two events and the outcome of these events that led to this conclusion is the appearance of Dr. Cairo Ojuogboh, the Executive Director, Projects on a television channel, and the press conference addressed by the Ag. Managing Director, Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei of the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC.

“The other issue put forward by the EDP is when he mentioned padding of the NDDC 2019 budget by the relevant committees of the Senate and House of Representatives and also emergency training projects valued at N 6.4 Billion inserted in the budget by the Chairman House Committee on Niger Delta.

“Our response to this is another whitewash because every Nigerian know that padding of budgets in Nigeria is as old as this democracy and that padding of budgets is no news as far as Nigerians are concerned. We make it clear that we are not in any way endorsing any form of corruption by this statement, but going further the EDP owned up that the NASS members where duly obliged an amount in the budget as much as N15bn and that is to say the IMC has become an accessory to fraud therefore the IMC does not have the moral standing to midwife this forensic audit and for acts of aiding and abetting fraud, this IMC and the Minister should not be allowed to stay in office a day longer than necessary”.

It also added that “furthermore, by the actions of the IMC and the Minister, they have clearly disobeyed a Presidential directive that frowns at padding of budgets by MDAs, for going against this directive goes to show the crass disobedience of Presidential directive and how extant rules and procedures are disregarded and abused at will in the management of the Commission and it’s resources.

“The EDP made mention of 1,000 projects in the budget as belonging to a serving senator while the Ag. Managing Director made mention of 500 fake projects all in the 2019 budget.

“Now the pertinent question to ask is why did the IMC not alert Nigerians at the early stage when all of these budget padding is going on behind closed doors so it gives Nigerians the opportunity to know those to be held accountable and absolve the IMC of any compromise with members of NASS?

“The effort to use blackmail only came when all hell was let loose when the NASS showed signs of pushing ahead with the probe which inadvertently makes the IMC guilty already.

“The essence of what the IMC did was to say since the NASS is not yielding to back off the probe we the (IMC) will spill the bean…that is owning up that a crime has been committed and if that is the case, which is clearly what it is, people must be held to account.

“We have come to the conclusion that our fears are confirmed every single day the IMC comes out to address issues of allegations of mismanagement of funds made against the IMC, the very serious allegations of corruption is being trivialized.

“Going further down the road Nigerians will be inundated by efforts to confuse them about the forensic audit exercise, the effort to spew the wrong narrative will reach its climax, that is why we have hammered over and over and will continue to do so that the call for probe of the NDDC predates Akpabio being a Governor, so the claim that he is being attacked because people are afraid of the outcome of the audit is all nonsense.

“For instance the Interim board that was headed by Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, was equally enmeshed in monumental fraud of different dimensions never seen in the history of the NDDC at the time and there was similar outcry from all and sundry for investigation to be conducted by the EFCC, in fact many petitions were written some even called for the scrapping of the commission.

“One of the reasons we say we are going to issue our own minority report is because we do not have confidence that the auditing firm will do a thorough job because the process is rigged already.

“The confidence in the forensic audit is depressed and the result and the sanctity of it is eroded already.

“It is therefore incumbent upon all of us, regardless of our tribes, positions or platforms to respond with truth, facts and data in the face of any attempts to confuse and deploy false information about the issues involving the NDDC.”