Suspicion, As DESOPADEC Awards Contracts Without Budgetary Provisions; 2016 Budget Still Being Implemented

Investigation have shows how Delta State Oil Producing Area Commission, (DESOPADEC), award contracts ostensibly for “political reason” without budgetary provisions for such project.

The development, which is said to be the reason for the chains of abandoned projects dotting every part of the oil bearing communities, calls for concern owing to the huge allocation that have accrued to the oil commission over the years yet projects are not budgeted for.

There have been suspicion in some quarters that many of the projects however were awarded for “political settlement of politicians”, their cronies and fronts, hence some remain as wasteful and having no direct impact in the oil bearing communities.

This is coming as contractors under the auspices of  DESOPADEC Indigenous Contractors Forum are currently lobbying the management of the Delta State Oil Producing Area Commission, to have their projects already awarded, some executed and ongoing to be included in the “2016 alignment budget of the commission”.

BigPen Online learnt that some of the projects awarded over 5 to 6 years ago which has no budgetary provision, have no direct impact on the communities but were awarded, some executed while others abandoned for lack of funds.

The projects in which the oil commission is owing backlog of debt ranged from N115million to N8 million depend on their category. Some of the projects were awarded during the tenureship of Chief Wellington Okirika as board chairman before the commission was unbundled to have management team and board respectively.

It was learnt that the contractors, some of whom borrowed money from banks and cooperative societies to carry out the jobs have to lobby the Olorogun William Makinde-led management and the commissioners representing the ethnic nationalities to include the projects in the 2016 DESOPADEC alignment budget that is soon to be forwarded for implementation.

The commission is indebted to the contractors to hundreds of millions of naira since inception of the commission but the state of its indebtedness got worsen during the incumbent board and administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa who had been accused in many quarters of starving the commission of its 50 percent of the 13 percent oil largesse accruing to the state.

Documents sighted by BigPen Online shows that Urhobo ethnic nationality have the highest number of projects numbering twenty nine (29) in different categories that have no budgetary provision, followed by Ijaw with twenty four (24), Itsekiri eleven (11), Isoko ten (10) and Ndokwa seven (7).

It was however gathered that where the projects are completed, some officials of the commission, particularly those in the Finance and Administration Department (FAD) demand for “kickback” from the contractors for their files to be attended to and process for payment.

The commission’s Executive Director, Finance and Administration, (EDFA), Bashorun Askia Ogieh is alleged to be the brain behind the financial fraud but Ogieh told BigPen Online in a telephone conversation that many people including protesting junior workers and even contractors often drop his name even when apparently, the inability of the commission to make payment as at when due was stemmed from paucity of funds.

Chairman of contractors’ body, Mr. Francis Obule in response to exclusive enquiries by BigPen Online on this report, disclosed that his group was currently going round the commissioners representing the ethnic nationalities to capture the projects already awarded, ongoing and some completed under the name tag of “alignment budget”.

According to him, the said alignment budget was to cover projects that doesn’t have budgetary provision, adding that the essence of the going round was to appeal to the ethnic representatives in the commission to ensure that the projects are captured so as not to heat up the polity as 2019 approaches.

“We are going round all the various commissioners representing the ethnic nationalities for them to capture our projects in the name of alignment budget because for the past two years and six months of this current board there is nothing like alignment budget to cover those projects that does not have budgetary provision”.

“Some of the projects are of 2011, 2014 that doesn’t have budgetary provision so we are now begging them to make provision for these projects and have compiled the list according to the request of the EDFA which is the person of Chief Askia because I asked the question during our last protest and he gave these directives but since then nothing has been done.

“Hence we are now going round all the commissioners because the commissioners are the custodians of all the various projects. So we are now going round to meet them to make ensure that these projects have fund so that we can be paid. We don’t want to go and start protesting hence this moves so that it will not look as if we are troubleshooters. If they fail to make provision for them, then everyone will know they are the problem of the board.

“We don’t want to abandon any project, we want our projects completed. Some of us handling these projects are from the communities and people often accuse us that we have embezzled the money whereas they haven’t given us any money even mobilization fund.

He however said that the 2016 alignment budget of the commission would elapse two or three months after its implementation before the 2017 budget would commence its implementation, stressing that the 2016 suppose to run between October and November for 2017 to kick off in January and February but the delay now being experience to conclude the alignment may push it up.

According to him, DESOPADEC currently have no budget for 2018 before the State House of Assembly adding that the commission is still running with 2016 budget and the alignment budget which they are trying to work on now.

“I am not aware of any budget that has been sent to state Assembly, the one I’m aware of is this alignment budget we are currently fighting for now. Whether the board has send 2018 budget to Asaba I don’t know but to me I’m just trying to inform them so that they don’t say we didn’t let them know of these projects hence we are going round to meet them one after the another.

“I am sure the MD has received copy of projects that have no budgetary provisions, even the copies signed by the commissioners have since being forwarded to him”.

He noted that ordinarily, contractors are not suppose to be the ones going round board members to make budgetary provisions for projects but because of political factor, it behooves on them to fight for themselves and get the projects funded.

“Ordinarily budgetary provisions lie with the management of the commission, it is not our duty; it is the duty of the commission to do that. Our own is to go and execute our projects which some of us have done, our own is to wait for payment of the job done. You can imagine somebody that did job since 2014 until now they have not pay so how can he/she survive it. Some people have done their job since 2011 and they haven’t still pay them because of this same problem.

“The money to fund these projects have been coming to the best of my knowledge but I don’t know what went wrong. Maybe you people will also go and enquire from the management what is happening to the alignment budget and budget provision; why is it that projects that have been awarded to contractors don’t have budgetary provisions. If you are giving me a job to build an edifice, definitely you must make provision for it, mine own is to look for money and execute it.

“Mine you, we are not being mobilized. We struggle to get money from banks and cooperatives societies to execute these projects and then at the end of the day we are not being paid. Some of us borrow money from money lenders and loans from cooperatives bodies at the end we will not being pay and the interest will be running so how can we survive it. So to be on the safe side, hence we’re doing this for them to know these projects are still ongoing, they shouldn’t be thinking of new projects when the old ones are there so that the communities they are representing will have life not darkness.

Responding to allegations that the management of the commission often times pay their front contractors first whenever money is released to clear backlog of the commission’s indebtedness, Obule said that it was a “normal thing” because of the political factor of how things are done in Delta state.

“It is normal, because in anything you do…some of them look at it that since they are in such position they would like to “fight for themselves” and they may not come our personally to do that and some of those contractors are also in our forum. Any contractors working for DESOPADEC is in this forum whether you get your own job from the top or through the bottom, a contractor is a contractor whether you are fronting for someone or not.

“All we are after is that pay “B” as you are paying “A”  and pay “C” as you are paying “D” etc, don’t discriminate because everybody is passing through the same source. Everyone of us borrow money so if you are paying A and leaving B automatically A will continue with his job while B will abandon his project and that will not be good for the commission.

According to him, in the previous board, whenever the commission wants to pay, the commissioners would send in their input of projects in their various areas that require payment, adding that they don’t normally go to the commission begging for budgetary provision as it is being done now.

Obule disclosed that it was the commissioners who often send their input to account department to capture them for payment using percentage which was often minimal, sometime 20, 30, 40 or 50 percent depends on the contract category.

“But this present board is not like that. The kind of payment we are receiving is not what the contractors can survive”.

Reminded that the governor released some money to the commission to pay contractors sometime last year, he resorted; “the payment can’t be called payment for job done. It was not payment all at!.

“A situation whereby you pay somebody N1million, deduct VAT and TAX what is left is N900,000 and the person is indebted to the banks, how can he go back to site?. So it cannot work, it was not a payment; they just tagged it as a payment. But because they said allocation has dwindled and that they cannot accommodate everybody once, hence we don’t want to shout out.

“We want the money to be coming according to their promise. They said every month they will be bring N5 million, that’s what the EDFA and MD told us that stopped the contractor’s protest as you are seeing it today. That’s why you don’t see any contractors protesting today. To the best of my knowledge they pay for November but I don’t receive payment because I don’t have money in my budgetary provision so I’m not complaining. That’s why we are now fighting that this projects should be captured in the alignment budget so that we can be paid.

According to him, any contractors being paid now by the oil commission are the ones that have been earlier captured in the 2016 budget, saying that the alignment budget ought to captured projects that are still not budgeted for and it would continue to run after it elapses in January or February for the whole of 2017 fiscal year.

He said that once the commission votes some money to pay contractors in the alignment budget, they will run that budget for the whole of 2017 which again will be used for the 2018 budget that yet to be prepared since all the funds cannot go into payment of debt alone.

Meanwhile, when contacted in a telephone conversation, the commission’s Executive Director, Finance and Administration, (EDFA), Bashorun Askia Ogieh, dismissed allegations making the round that his office was responsible for the crisis being faced by the commission, stressing that the oil commission was not a sole business where decisions are exclusively at one persons discretion.

He explained that the items in the various DESOPADEC budget were well conceived and provided for but the commission would make payment according to money available for projects execution.

Written by Julius Eras-Olabowu

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