Again, group alleges disparity in NDDC budget, approved fund

A group, Social Development Integrated Centre, has raised concerns over alleged disparity in the sum budgeted and the amount approved for 27 projects approved for Delta State by the Niger Delta Development Commission under the commission’s 2020 budget.

Speaking to journalists in Asaba on the findings from the 27 tracked projects, the centre’s Programme Officer, Mr Isaac Botti, said the group observed a huge disparity between the sum budgeted and the eventual amount approved.

He said, “Earlier in December 2021, we tracked some selected projects approved for Delta State in the commission’s budget for 2020.

“A total of 29 projects were tracked in Bomadi, Ugheli North, Uwie, Warri South, Warri North, Sapele, Ethiope West, Isoko North, Isoko South, Ndokwa West, Aniocha North, Aniocha South, Oshimili North and Oshimili South Local Government Areas of Delta State

“From our tracking report, we observed a huge disparity between the sum budgeted for projects and the eventual amount approved for execution.

“For example, N2.7bn was budgeted for the construction of Oviri Court junction by Effurun-Sapele Road to Oha junction by Effurun-Emu Road, Okpe, but the amount approved was N98,000,000.

“Also, N1bn was budgeted for the construction of School of Sciences, Western Delta University, Oghara but actual amount approved was N104,274,164.38 among others.”

Botti said the situation was such that the project with the highest approved sum got 40% of the amount originally budgeted while the average approved amount for the projects under reference stood at 15% of their budgeted sum.

“This development is not good for effective project delivery, no wonder that most of these projects were abandoned.

“It was also observed that in most cases, the community people were kept in the dark over projects they are the very end beneficiaries,” he added.

He said there was the need to reverse the trend while suggesting strategic and effective civic engagement by citizens and different organised groups as one of the ways out. Punch