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Nigeria approves auditors for Delta region development agency probe

Published 26/08/2020, 19:05

ABUJA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Nigeria's government has approved
auditors led by Ernst & Young to examine the finances of a
government organisation set up in 2000 to develop the oil-rich
but poor Niger Delta region, the minister for Niger Delta
Affairs said on Wednesday.
Nigerian lawmakers this year launched an investigation into
alleged financial mismanagement at the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC) over the last 20 years.
An audit of the body was ordered by President Muhammadu
Buhari in October.
Godswill Akpabio, the minister for Niger Delta Affairs, said
the appointment of a team of auditors was approved at a meeting
of the ministerial cabinet on Wednesday. He said the auditors
would examine projects approved by NDDC over the last 19 years.
"Through this exercise, we will know the amount of monies
that have gone into the region in the last 19 years and whether
the value we have received so far are commensurate with the
monies that have entered into NDDC," he told reporters after the
meeting.
Asked about the cost of the audit, Akpabio said Buhari last
year approved around 2.5 billion naira ($6.57 million) to cover
the cost of the exercise.
A spokesman for NDDC did not immediately respond to a phone
call and text messages requesting a comment.
The Niger Delta remains impoverished despite providing most
of the oil, the mainstay of the economy, produced in Africa's
biggest crude exporter. Locals have for decades complained of
poverty, with anger at times spilling over into attacks on
energy facilities.

($1 = 380.6000 naira)

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