Concerned States Must Have Input In NDDC’s Contract, Projects – MD

The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr Samuel Ogbuku, has said the era of awarding and executing projects at the Head Office in Port Harcourt without the input of its state offices is gone.

The nine mandate states of the Commission include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

“The state offices are the foundation of the commission because the projects are not in the state headquarters,” Ogbuku said on his maiden visit to the Commission’s state office in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

“The projects are in various states and the state offices manage those projects. So, if there’s a disconnect between the head office and the state offices, then definitely, we are going to have a lot of problems.

“We’re definitely going to work with the state offices to curb all these issues of fake projects, uncompleted projects, dupliction of projects, so that in our budgeting process, we will carry every stakeholder along, so that state directors should also advise us on projects that we ought to do in those states.”

According to Ogbuku, the Governing Board of the Commission will work closely with the state offices in the nine mandate states on project delivery across the Niger Delta region.

The NDDC Managing Director said such synergy with its state offices will ensure that projects are executed according to specification and delivered on time.

Ogbuku, who was accompanied by the Bayelsa State Representative on the new NDDC Governing Board, paid the visit to get acquainted with the activities in the state and familiarise himself with their achievements and challenges.

For Ogbuku, the State Offices of the agency are pivotal in the delivery of projects across the Niger Delta.

He said going forward, NDDC projects cannot be awarded with the inputs of State Offices.

The Director, Bayelsa State Office, Theophilus Allagoa, wasted no time disclosing the challenges of an unbefitting working environment aggravated by last year’s flood.

To positively improve the output of NDDC Staff in Bayelsa State, the Managing Director speaks of plans to collectively address the welfare of staff and provide a befitting working environment.