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The senate, on Wednesday, delayed the approval of the
N236.58 billion 2010 budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC) for lack of details and bogus overhead cost.

The NDDC budget, which has an allocation of N12.84
billion for personnel and overhead cost, also had an allocation of N226
billion for capital budget. However, the senators criticised the budget
for lacking detailed projects in which the capital budget was to be
applied on.

In a bid to pass the budget expeditiously, even
though the budget is coming late, the senate has asked the chairman of
the senate committee on NDDC, responsible for the budget, to submit all
the details of the budget to the senate by Thursday for possible
consideration and approval.

Beyond Thursday, the senate will embark on a two
months vacation, and the promoters of the budget fear the commission
will be stranded if the senate does not approve the budget before going
on vacation.

“We are actually hard pressed – two wrongs cannot
make a right – let us get the details tomorrow and see whether we can
pass it,” the senate president, David Mark, told the NDDC committee
chairman, James Manager (PDP, Delta State).

The decision of the senate to reconsider the budget
with its full details was reached after a heated debate in which some
senators unsuccessfully called for a piecemeal approval of the budget,
while some of the senators from the Niger Delta region called for the
approval of the budget without the details.

According to Mr. Manager, the NDDC committee has all
the details sent to it by the presidency and will tender them on
Thursday. He, however, notified the senate that NDDC is notorious for
submitting budget proposals late.

“If the next year budget does not come by September
this year, they should forget it. We won’t be taking their budgets
outside September anymore,” the senate president said.

The NDDC act stipulates that they submit their next annual budgets before the end of September of the current fiscal year.

Bogus Overhead

Although the budget has a total of N12.84 billion
proposed to be spent on overhead and personnel, the senators criticised
it saying it is bogus.

The senators criticised some allocations in which some offices proposed to spend up to half a billion naira on personnel alone.

“The overhead cost is completely overboard,” Lee
Maeba (PDP Rivers State), said. The budget contains provisions like
N529.26 million for personnel and overhead cost for the managing
director’s office, N456.8 million for the corporate affairs office,
N330.38 million for the directorate of legal services, and N676.3
million for the directorate of planning, research, statistics, and MIS.

The budget also includes an allocation of N90 million for condolences and marriages.

“There is too much money for personnel and overhead cost.” Ahmed
Lawan said. “Are we trying to settle some cabal in Port Harcourt or are
we trying to build infrastructure in the region?” Mr. Lawan queried.