Alleged Sleaze in NDDC: Board, MD lobby Jonathan against removal

Posted by admin Niger Delta Saturday, September 10th, 2011

Strong indications emerged on Friday that the top management members of the Niger Delta Development Commission had started lobbying President Goodluck Jonathan against the move to sack them over alleged financial misconduct.

SATURDAY PUNCH gathered that the NDDC Board, led by retired Air Vice-Marshal Larry Koinyan, and the Managing Director of the commission, Chibuzor Ugwuoha, were using highly influential officers in the Presidency to prevail on Jonathan not to dissolve the board and relieve Ugwuoha of his job.

The tension in the NDDC and the moves to lobby the Presidency followed the recommendation of the Presidential Probe Committee on the NDDC, headed by a former Head of Service, Mr. Steve Oronsaye. The committee’s recommendations had tilted against the board after it discovered discrepancies in the books of the commission.

Also, a highly-placed source has told Saturday Punch that the Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, had recommended the immediate removal of Ugwuoha as the NDDC boss to the President.

It was learnt that Sambo suggested that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission be called in to ensure a holistic investigation into the scandal.

But the President was said to have insisted that due process must be followed in the affair.

Jonathan was said to have directed two of his aides to closely study the interim report with a view to advising him on their findings.

It was however learnt that those affected by the recommendations of the Oronsaye Committee had reached out to two very strong contacts in the Presidency to prevail on Jonathan to save their jobs.

It was learnt that the two figures were working assiduously to prevail on Jonathan, who insisted on due process, to retain Ugwuoha and the embattled board.

While the Presidency awaits the final report from Oronsanye and his team, it is most likely that a decision would be taken to remove those considered to be the senior officials of the commission.

SATURDAY PUNCH learnt on Friday in Abuja that in his Executive Summary to the Interim Report addressed to the President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, recommended the dissolution of the NDDC board as suggested by the committee.

This will be complemented with the immediate disengagement of some very senior staff of the commission to effectively address the crisis in the commission.

In a statement suggestive of a decision to accept the committee’s recommendation to sack the board, the MD and the two EDs, Anyim was said to have noted some difficulties in getting competent hands to run the commission.

It was learnt that the SGF disagreed with one of the core recommendations of the Oronsaye Committee that at the completion of the term of the interim committee, Bayelsa and Rivers, whose citizens had not completed their tenures as the chairman and MD respectively, should be allowed to nominate appointees who would serve out their uncompleted terms.

However, contrary to the position of the committee, the SGF was said to have suggested that for effective result, the reconstitution of the new board must not follow the usual way of asking the states to nominate candidates.

Anyim was said to have noted that there could only be a difference in the NDDC management if the President alone identified reputable hands from the region in the like of Senator Udo Udoma.

Udoma, the present Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who was a colleague of Anyim in the Senate, is not from Bayelsa or Rivers.

The SGF, on behalf of the Federal Government, had set up the Oronsaye Committee to probe the NDDC from 2007 to date earlier this year.

The committee was saddled with the responsibility of interacting with the NDDC stakeholders with a view to identifying the causes of the crisis affecting the commission and proffering solutions that could reposition the body.

Members of the commission included Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, Mr. B.O.N. Otti, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, Mr. Ishaq Yahaya, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, Mr. Raymond Brown and Dr. Timiebi Koripamo-Agary.

The interim report submitted by the Oronsaye Committee to the SGF recommended the immediate sacking/disengagement of the board, and the retirement or resignation of Ugwuoha, and the two EDs of the commission over alleged fraudulent transactions.

The committee observed that contrary to the recommendations of the board to update an obsolete accounting manual, the review was allegedly done in violation of Section 14, (3) of the NDDC Act, which empowers the board to make rules concerning the management of the commission’s funds.

According to the committee, the delayed review of the manual, which has taken over 12 months, was responsible for the confusion and conflict about designating signatories to the commission’s account.

The alleged offence of the MD, as highlighted in the report, is “that the MD proceeded to open a new account with First Bank of Nigeria Plc, United Kingdom, without the approval from the Board and with fictitious Board resolution.

“His explanation was that the opening of the new account was necessitated by the evident weakness in Union Bank at the time and to avoid the loss of funds – the commission having experienced a similar situation in the loss of over N1bn in Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria.

“He claimed that he decided to act proactively in anticipation of the board’s retroactive approval.

“Notwithstanding this proactive stance of the MD, the committee is of the view that the MD had sufficient time and could have approval from the board before proceeding to open the new account.”

The Oronsaye Committee observed that in spite of the controversy generated by the account, the MD transferred $37m out of Union Bank, UK into the account.

Additional sums transferred (up to $40m) were from the offshore account of the commission in Union Bank of Nigeria in the UK.

It was learnt that $20m each was deposited in UBA and UBN Nigeria.

SATURDAY PUNCH gathered that payment instructions valued at N2.1bn by the two EDs was stopped by the MD.

The committee gave some far reaching revelations on the factors that tore the relationship between the board and the MD into shreds.

The committee noted that the MD refused to approve the payment of some allowances for committee members, which are as follows:

A monthly remuneration package for the chairman at N6m; Reps from four major oil-producing states, N2.5m; and Reps from other states, N2m.

The package included $10,000 and N100,000 for annual medical allowance and sitting allowance per day for the board.

In place of the present board and management, the committee empanelled on July 27, 2011, to probe the activities of the intervention agency – from 2007 to 2011 – recommended an interim committee of not more than three persons to preside over a planned restructuring of the commission.

The committee observed the “gross violation of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007, and the prequalification process for contractors in the commission.”

The committee, which noted the frosty relationship between the board and the MD, traced the crisis partly to the decision of Ugwuoha to open a new account with First Bank of Nigeria Plc, UK, “without approval from the board and with a fictitious board resolution.”

The committee observed among others, the refusal of the MD to pay board members allowances approved by them, “award of contracts in states without reference to state representatives, as being responsible for the irreconcilable differences in the commission.

“In assessing and evaluating sample inventory of some NDDC projects awarded since June 2007, the committee generally observed that there were gross violations of the provision of the Public Procurement Act. This was also true for the contractors’ prequalification process in the commission…

“Also worrisome is the fact that some members of staff of the commission and some other people, particularly the youths and the political class, see the commission as a source of easy money and therefore indulge in unethical activities for pecuniary benefit.

“These challenges and the obvious inability on the part of the principal actors to address them professionally and maturely have dampened the hopes of many and compelled major stakeholders in the oil producing states to perceive the NDDC as a failed institution,” the report read in part.

The tension in the NDDC, which was set up to bring development to the Niger Delta region in 2000, came into the open in November 2010 when the board petitioned the then SGF, Alhaji Ahmed Yayale, accusing the MD of opening a foreign account without authorisation in the controversial $20m transfer.

-Punchwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Sep 10 2011. Filed under Niger Delta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry