The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice has asked the Niger Delta Development Commission to publish the names of contractors it suspended.
ANEEJ commended the commission for its “courage in suspending 600 contracts with abandoned projects worth N200bn,” and its resolve to prosecute the defaulting banks and contractors linked to the cancelled contracts.
A statement from the group said the Executive Director, ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, made the recommendation just after a meeting the NDDC had with members of the media.
He said, “Beyond the suspension of these bogus contracts, the NDDC must initiate moves at publishing the names and identities of these contractors. In May 2016, Nigeria signed on to the Open Government Partnership, where we committed to a National Action Plan of access to information, citizen participation, fiscal transparency, and zero-tolerance to corruption.
“If the names of the contractors are published, ANEEJ verily believes that it would allow citizens to unmask the real perpetrators of abandoned contracts and help Niger Deltans to demand inclusiveness in the determination of contracts relevant to their communities.”
According to the statement, ANEEJ wants the NDDC to get non-governmental organisations, stakeholders and relevant activists in the Niger Delta to be part of the procurement processes involved in the award of contracts for projects in Niger Delta communities.
It said several weeks before the sanctions imposed on the contractors, the Minister of Niger Delta, Pastor Usani Usani, had alleged at a Federal Executive Council meeting that apart from a whopping N700bn allegedly stolen from the ministry, another N423bn appropriated for project implementation in the Niger Delta could not be accounted for.
“Apart from the prosecution of the perpetrators of those unaccounted-for funds, we urge the NDDC to put the recovered funds to use in the completion of either ongoing or abandoned projects in the Niger Delta. If that gets done, ANEEJ verily believes that the much-desired transformation of the Niger Delta would be accomplished,” Ugolor said.
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