Reps task oil firms, ICPC on commission's funding, alleged graft in NNPCTHE House of Representatives yesterday asked all oil companies to fulfill their statutory financial obligation to the funding of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to facilitate its operations.This followed a disclosure by the commission's Managing Director, Chris Oboh, that the oil firms were not complying with the NDDC Act in terms of their financial contribution to the commission.The Act stated that all oil companies should pay three per cent of their yearly budget to the commission on a yearly basis.At a tripartite meeting of the House committee on NDDC, the management of the commission and the oil firms, Oboh declared that NDDC's records showed that all the oil companies were not up to date in their payments.Earlier at the plenary session, the House received and debated a N249.5 billion budget proposal for the 2011 fiscal year.President Goodluck Jonathan in a letter read to lawmakers by the House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, urged the lawmakers to give accelerated consideration to the budget proposal of the commission.Leader of the House, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, who moved motion for the debate on the general principles of the budget Bill, attributed the delay in the budget of the NDDC to the crisis in the commission, pointing out that it was 'better done late than never.'She said of the total sum, N46.7 billion was coming from allocation to the NDDC in the 2011 budget of the Federation, N95.4 billion as revenue brought forward, and N109 billion as contributions from oil companies, and N525 million from internally generated revenue by the Commission.The recurrent expenditure would gulp N7 billion while non-project capital expenditure would take N877 million. Total personnel expenditure according to the proposal will take N9 billion.Also yesterday, the House of Representatives urged the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to extend its searchlights to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Anti-corruption, National Ethics and Values, James Faleke, said that ICPC needed to wake up from its slumber and show Nigerians that it was ready for the anti-corruption crusade.'Nigerians need to know more about the effectiveness of the ICPC in the war against corruption. We are aware today that NNPC put the barrels of oil per day at 2.48 million, nobody knows about the number of unaccounted barrels and it is generally believed that it is more.'Even President Goodluck Jonathan does not know the correct figures of barrels of oil that Nigeria is producing on daily basis. He like any other person relies on the figures giving by the NNPC.'Your commission, therefore, should go after the NNPC in the war against corruption, you should design a system that will curb corruption in NNPC, this will help the country and Nigerians will see that ICPC is working.
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