The Federal
Government has ordered investigation into educational qualifications of members
of staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Minister of
Niger Delta Affairs, Uguru Usani, gave the directive when he visited the
commission on Friday in Port Harcourt.
He expressed
optimism the investigation would expose ghost workers and staff members, who
gained employment in the commission with forged certificates.
According to
him, the Federal Government was committed to purge the commission of sleazy
practices with focus to fast track development of the Niger Delta.
“We have
observed that there are several people working in NDDC with forged
certificates, which is partly responsible for the bad image of the commission.
“Directors
of the various departments in the commission are expected to submit the nominal
roll of their respective departments to the NDDC Managing Director, Nsima
Ekere, within one week.
“We will not
tolerate any delay to this directive and as such, failure to submit the nominal
roll on or before one week would lead to sanction.
“Any
departmental head who signed for a ghost worker would face the music,” he said.
Mr. Usani,
who was accompanied by the House Committee Chairman on the NDDC, Nicholas Mutu,
warned against political interference in the process.
He said,
henceforth, political interference in the running of the commission would be
resisted and assured that Federal Government was committed to “governance
without partisanship.”
Nsima Ekere,
the Managing Director of NDDC, said the commission would partner the Ministry
of Niger Delta, its supervising ministry, to complete construction of the
East-West road project.
He said the
road project, which cut across six states in the Niger Delta, would cost in
excess of N70 billion to complete.
“The
strategy will be to harness private sector collaboration to complete the road
project. The portions that have totally collapsed will be addressed immediately.
“We will
involve multiple contractors, especially the Eleme-Refinery Junction road,
which is a strategic link to the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
“The
East-West road is also strategic because it connects Edo, Delta, Bayelsa,
Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states,” he said.
Mr. Ekere
said the commission had deployed a technology designed to monitor project with
focus to reduce incidences of abandoned projects in the area.
He said the
technology would enable the commission to monitor project sites and record
progress of work in real time.
“With this
technology, contractors will longer lie to us that they are on site when the
work is not going on,” he said.
(NAN)
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