NDDC: No contracts verification, no payment — Nunieh

TRACKING____Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Joy Nunieh, has said the commission would deny payments to contractors and consultants who fail to present their jobs for verification.

Nunieh, Wednesday, at the Rivers state office of NDDC in Port Harcourt, said, “Anyone not on the NDDC list is not our contractor and such should be handed over to security agencies for prosecution. Similarly, anyone that presents fake Interim Payment Certificate, IPC, will be arrested.”

“Contractors always say they are not paid, now we have asked them to come with all their documents and they are finding it difficult. Some contractors are scared of the verification exercise.

“Any contractor who fails to come for verification will be held liable. We are hoping that Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, will come for the exercise as well. We only have limited time and up till now, only five NGOs have turned up.

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“If you don’t have documents, you are not a contractor, most of the NGOs are not registered and are running to register now. This is an embarrassment to the commission.”

Nunieh expressed satisfaction with the on-going verification exercise billed to close at the end of January, stating that the committee planned to verify up to 250 contracts every day.

“Those who use agents to run contracts only remind me of our people abroad who would send moneys to loved ones to develop projects, only for them to discover when they return that there is nothing on ground to show for all the moneys sent.

“Some contractors are coming with fake documents and of course, they are not our contractors. Some contractors are also afraid to come for the verification.

Head of the Verification Committee for Rivers and Director Agriculture and Fisheries, George Ero, described turnout of contractors for the exercise as very poor with 82 persons attended to so far out of a total 2,500 recorded in the list of contractors for the state.