Reps Query Niger Delta Ministry Over N62 Million Transactions

The House of Representatives has berated officials of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs over alleged N62 million dubious financial transactions that are not documented or in the financial records of the ministry.



The ministry officials, led by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Didi Watson-Jack, appeared before the House Committee on Public Accounts yesterday.



They were asked to explain some payments made by the Commission to ‘’dubious’’ companies, and a N48 million for a training programme in Dubai in 2014, and N14m for the purchase of Smart and tablets phones without valid documents.

The ministry officials were invited by the committee based on an audit query raised by the Auditor General of the Federation for the 2014 financial year.

Speaking, chairman of the committee, Wole Oke informed that “there is no single receipt for the payments of air fares trip to and from Dubai, hotel accommodation, visas and what have you.

“We also discovered that the original company that made the submission for the Dubai trip was not the one the Ministry made the payment to.’’