FEC okays additional N765m variation cost

Adeleye Kunle Reports

The Federal Government has approved additional variation costs to settle consultancy services for the Niger Delta Development Commission’s forensic audit (NDDC), TrackNews reports

The cost variation of N765,974,975.50 was agreed upon at the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The audit originally cost N1.786 billion. Following widespread allegations of corruption and abandoned projects by the Commission in the past, President Buhari ordered for exercise.

Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Umana, briefed State House Correspondents on the meeting’s outcome, saying, “Today at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, the memo on the additional costs of carrying out the forensic audit was the size of what was considered and approved by Council.”

“You may recall that for this exercise, a lead consultant was appointed who had to collaborate with 16 other field auditors, and the initial contract zone that covered the lead consultants and the field forensic auditors was N1.786 billion.”

“These auditors have since completed their work, but it was discovered that in order to complete this work, they had to deal with many more projects than were originally planned.” In addition, the exercise took an additional seven months. The auditors took into account 3,773 additional projects in total. As a result of the increased number of projects and time required, Council today approved a revised additional sum of N765,974,975.50 to cover the additional work performed by the forensic auditors.