Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr Joi Nunieh, has ordered the Directorate of Planning, Research and Statistics to treat budgetary implementation requests (Recurrent and Capital from the various Directorates, Departments, Units and State Offices for the year 2020.
“The Directorate of Planning, Research and Statistics is hereby directed to treat budgetary implementation requests (Recurrent and Capital from the various Directorates, Departments, Units and State Offices for the year 2020,” the NDDC boss announced in a circular.
In November 2019, the Senate, the upper arm of the National Assembly (NASS), barred the interim management of the commission from defending the agency’s 2020 budget.
But in a memo dated January 15, 2020, the intervention agency’s chief executive officer said the sum of N80.9 billion was appropriated to the commission in the country’s 2020 Budget.
“Please recall that the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari (CCFR) has signed into law the federation’s 2020 Budget (Appropriation Act).
“Also, in the approved Budget, the sum of N80,881,610,074 only has been appropriated to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC),” the document said.
President Buhari had in November 2019 sent the budget estimates of the agency to a joint session of the parliament for approval. The federal lawmakers are yet to pass the 2019 budget of the commission.
Titled Implementation of NDDC Budget, Dr Nunieh ordered the Directorate of Planning, Research and Statistics to comply.
“It is pertinent to state here that the commission is an intervention agency whose activities are predominantly in the Niger Delta region with a peculiar and harsh geographical terrain and is greatly influenced by the weather conditions,” the memo stated.
Adedapo Adesanya