The two ministers of the Niger Delta ministry should be sacked. This is the verdict of the House of Representatives' committee that oversees the region.
The committee said on Thursday that the ministers have failed Nigerians and the region.
Ufot Ekaette who is the minister and Godwin Orubebe, the minister of state, came under thorough criticisms at a budget performance meeting of the committee, constituted mainly by lawmakers from the oil producing region.
Damning verdict
The lawmakers told Mr. Ekaette and Mr. Orubebe, that they had both failed the intentions of the present administration in setting up the ministry, which is to help attend to the needs of the disturbing region. The committee members said they were planning to seek audience with President Umaru Yar'Adua to examine the achievements of the ministry more than one year after its creation.
In details of performance documents presented before the committee, the ministry officials gave an update on the programmes the Ministry had initiated since April 2009 when it finally commenced operations to include new and ongoing 73 projects, spread across the nine oil producing states.
Most of the projects were uncompleted, with those having to do with procurement of vehicles recording 100%, according to the lawmakers.
The records too showed that the officials spent more funds on consultants who undertook preliminary technical services, rather than the real contractors who are supposed to execute the projects.
The consultants carry out designs, costing and survey, while the contractors execute the main details of the contract. In one case, of a N100 million project, Mr. Ekaette, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, approved the payment of N24 million to the consultants, while the contractor was paid only N6 million.
"The Minister can score himself any mark, but on the ground, it is very clear that the Ministry has failed woefully," said Igo Aguma, a member of the committee. "Sadly, this ministry is headed by people from the Niger Delta, yet, why are you paying consultants on projects that have not taken off? In fact, there are no concerted efforts on the part of the ministry to develop Niger Delta, Mr. Chairman, this score card by my brother is far from the aspiration of the people of Niger Delta," he said.
Off the target
Daemi Kunaiyi-Akpana said the ministry had deviated from the programmes submitted to the National Assembly.
Ita Enang, another member of the committee described the report of the ministry as a "charade and a shame".
They, however, directed the minister to furnish the committee with the profile of the consultants, the financial disclosure of what was approved, what was collected and how it was distributed, as well as the scope of work by each contractor.
But Mr. Ekaette explained that engaging the consultants was necessary since many of the projects were awarded without proper costing before the ministry was given a minister.
NEXT learnt from a reliable source in the ministry about how against the desire of the president for mega projects, many lawmakers from the region, included their constituency projects and projects already executed by the state governments and the Niger Delta Development Commission.
The lawmakers from the Senate and the House of Representatives chose projects that were clearly unachievable and unrealistic so as to get kickbacks, the source alleged.
For instance, before the ministers were appointed, the lawmakers had allocated only N300 million in the budget for the construction of the over 700-kilometre Niger Delta Coastal Road, while N250 million was allocated for the over 27-kilometre long Ikot Ekwere-Ndukpo Ise-Ikot Eyo-Ikot Ntung road (with a bridge).
Governments in the area say, averagely, they spend N1 to N1.5 billion to construct a kilometre of road due to the difficult terrain.
Before the meeting, Mr. Enang was said to have argued that whether the president's vision of the development had changed or not, the implementation of the projects must be as contained in the approved budget.
The Special Assistant, Media to the minister, Soni Daniel, told NEXT in an interview yesterday that the ministry did nothing unusual in engaging the services of the consultants.
"In this age and time," he said. "It is not possible for any person to construct a house, road, bridge or embark on any project without first, having a design and knowing the cost. If the lawmakers, who inserted these projects in the budget, had done the design and costing, the ministry would not have gone into all that.
"The Ministry has not done anything unusual to have undertaken the design and production of bill of quantities for the projects. Is it feasible for the lawmakers to have made token provisions for mega projects to turn around the region?"
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