PTCIJ to NDDC: Strengthen accountability contract with citizens, not politicians

 The Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) has called on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to strengthen the accountability contract with the citizens to avoid alleged sleaze in the operations of the Commission.

In a communiqué issued at the end of a webinar themed “Discussing Financial Losses from mismanagement of funds within Niger Delta Development Commission and Its Impact on the Region” on 21st August 2020, organised by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), through the Natural Resource and Extractive Programme, held on zoom, said NDDC should not be accountable to politicians but people of the Niger Delta region, who should have a say on who is appointed minister and who is appointed to represent them.

The communiqué also advocated for community-level accountability mechanisms, which must be put in place, with CSOs standing behind the citizens and helping them  to demand accountability from persons and institutions put in place to serve them, stressing that  “citizens must be empowered to take up project monitoring by themselves.”

Besides, the National Assembly should work with MDAs, CSOs and the media, while an inclusive framework should be created for host communities whose lands are being exploited.

The communiqué also called on anti-corruption agencies to “work with the media and CSOs to track and prosecute those indicted in the scandal, just like what the ICPC is doing in the area of constituency project tracking. 6. The development agenda for NDDC needs to be reviewed.”

“Monitoring and evaluation frameworks need to be developed and must take into consideration the important question of ‘what is value for money in the NDDC with its multiple sources of revenue?’

“The appointment of persons has continuously been politicised without professionals working in the field. There is an urgent need to de-emphasize the politicization of the Commission which hinders the effort of anyone trying to reform NDDC for the development in the Niger Delta.

“NDDC should stop awarding more contracts until the ones awarded are executed. This model of development should be institutionalised.”

It further suggested that the master-plan of the NDDC should be reviewed to align with the needs of the host community.

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