Page 6 - AfrOil Week 32

AfrOil CommEntaRy AfrOil
The NDDC caper
The Niger Delta agency has failed to make good on its commitments and aims
niGERia
WHat:
NDDC is well funded but has a spotty record.
WHy:
Politics and corruption appear rampant at the agency.
WHat nExt:
Appetite for reform is limited, suggesting little will change.
NIGErIa’S Niger Delta Development Com- mission (NDDC) should be a key mechanism for ensuring the bene ts of energy sector invest- ment go to promoting the interests of local com- munities. It fails to do so.
Under the 2000 act establishing the NDDC, companies are required to provide 3% of their annual spending to the commission. as such, the agency receives a steady stream of cash, which should be transformative. For instance, royal Dutch Shell said it had paid NDDC $81.5mn in 2018, up from $79.7mn in 2017.
In the 2018 scal year, ending in July 2019, NDDC had NGN346.5bn ($952.6mn) budg- eted. Of this amount, NGN220bn ($605mn) came from contributions from oil companies. Under legal changes passed in 2018, Nigeria LNG (NLNG) is now also providing funds for the NDDC.
Over 2019, a number of concerning reports have emerged on the agency, most worryingly an investigation into the a airs of top o cials by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commis- sion (EFCC). reports in June highlighted the EFCC’s concerns, which focused on allegations of withdrawals of NGN2.8bn ($7.7mn) in cash.
NDDC denied the allegations. There has been “no improper cash withdrawal or nan- cial impropriety at the commission. If any- thing, the current administration has robustly implemented strict financial regulations and channelled the commission’s scarce resources to deliver on its core mandate of intervening in the development of the Niger Delta.”
Similar allegations have been made in the past. NDDC is perhaps most infamously known for its habit of launching projects, only to can- cel them. One recent report said the agency had cancelled as many as 5,000 projects as a result of corruption in the tendering process making contractors poorly motivated to carry out work.
Priorities
BudgIT Nigeria, an NGO focused on nan- cial transparency, has raised its own broader worries about NDDC. “Since [its] inception in 2000, NDDC has received at least $40bn for projects in oil-rich Niger Delta, yet failed to achieve the Niger Delta regional Devel- opment Masterplan to lay the foundation for transforming the region into Nigeria’s Dubai,” BudgIT said.
In the 2016-17 budget, NDDC was reported to have received NGN174bn ($478mn). Of this, the largest share went on investments in roads and bridges, accounting for NGN93.3bn ($256mn). While the agency has made some
progress in such construction, work is o en not done to a high standard, leaving communities in the Niger Delta in as bad a position as they were before the NDDC was involved.
BudgIT has called for the agency to focus instead on health projects, in addition to educa- tion, technology – and participatory budgeting.
While NDDC has made some commitments to the health sector, it is clear that the Niger Delta remains under-provided for in this regard. riv- ers State Governor Nyesom Wike, during talks with NDDC’s head, Nelson Braimbaifa, in late July, was reported as complaining that the agency had failed to deliver on its mandate.
“NDDC has become a political institution where money is set aside for politics. e only mega project [in rivers] is the Mother and Child Hospital, which was to be a joint project. NDDC duped rivers State government in the project. We paid our counterpart fund and NDDC paid nothing,” Vanguard reported Wike as saying.
The agency also provides scholarships for people from the Niger Delta to study abroad. at said, numerous complaints have been made over delayed and missing payments from NDDC for such study.
Executive demands
Complicating the agency’s attempts to judi- ciously invest the industry’s windfall are politics. Just as presidential politics are complicated by “zoning” – that is where the president comes from and the importance of this being trans- ferred from north to south – so too do such issues manifest at the agency level.
a group from Ondo State has called for the next head of NDDC to be one of its own, com- plaining that the other producing states have all provided top management for the agency. another group, the Oil Mineral Producing areas Stakeholders Forum, is pushing for the next head to be from Delta State, while the Ijaw Youth Council has said a young person should be appointed.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari sacked the NDDC board in 2015. They were removed following concerns over contract odd- ities and audit irregularities, including the order of a number of armoured SUVs.
e NDDC was established during the pres- idency of Olusegun Obasanjo. It has failed to carry out its stated purpose but it seems unlikely that the agency will be scrapped. rather, more layers of governance will be brought in – as seen with the 2008 establishment of the Ministry of Niger Delta a airs. Bureaucracy in Nigeria is its own reward.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 32 13•August•2019