Abuja — House of Representatives yesterday raised objections to the 2010 Appropriation Bill of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) particularly certain seeming "frivolous provisions" contained in the budget proposal.

The House has also charged the Commission to provide a detailed account of its budget implementation as well as the unspent funds which ought to have been returned to the treasury and ploughed back into the budget of the current year.

The anger over the budget arose principally because of its late submission to the parliament and the provision of a whooping N90million for what the Commission described in its schedule as expenses it plans to incur in the event of death, bereavement, condolence, transportation and marriage.

The bill which was presented for second reading on the floor of the House provided for the issue out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Niger Delta Development Commission , the sum of N236,587,390,000 (Two Hundred and Thirty Six Billion, Five Hundred and Eighty Seven Million, Three Hundred and ninety Thousand Naira) only out of which N5.8billion is for personnel cost; N6.9billion is for overhead costs; the sum of N1.7billion is for capital expenditure while the balance of N222billion for development projects.

House Leader, Honourable Tunde Akogun who led the debate on the general principles of the bill said the budget was geared towards fast tracking the development stride in the oil rich region particularly the completion of major projects left over from the 2009 budget.

According to Akogun, the budget is in furtherance of the presidentialinitiative on the Post Amnesty and seeks to provide critical infrastructure towards enhancing the success of the programme.

"The thrust of the budget however, is on human capital development which seeks to address issues of employment generation as a major step towards engaging the vibrant youths of the region. The budget identifies the need to complete a backlog of projects awarded as far back as 2002. It therefore proposes to complete outstanding projects so as to effectively capture the essence of the Commission's intervention. ," Akogun said.

The House Leader who urged the House to give the budget a favourable consideration had hardly concluded the debate when some lawmakers began to raise a number of questions. Chairman House Committee on Rules and Business, Honourable ITA Enang argued that there appeared to be a lack of proper coordination between the NDDC and the State governments. He said that for the Commission to achieve the desired goals there was need for it to work closely with the states in the execution of its projects to avoid abandonment and duplication of these projects.

Chairman, House Committee on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),Honourable Saudatu Sani drew the attention of the House to the N90million earmarked for social events such as marriages and condolence. Sani said it was ridiculous that in a region that was in dire need of basic social infrastructure such a huge amount can be devoted to mere social events such as bereavement and condolences. Honourable Patrick Obahiagbon (AC Edo) expressed doubts if the funds appropriated for the NDDC in the past ten years have made any significant impact in the lives of the people of the region.

Obahiagbon said the budget was not always coming late to the parliament but has not reflected in terms of democratic dividends in the Niger Delta. Deputy Speaker of the House, Honourable Usman Nafada who presided over the Committee of the Whole and Committee on Supply where the budget was considered said the criticisms trailing the budget were

indications that certain things were not right and the Commission may not have been meeting the expectations of the people of the region. Nafada said that although the budget scaled the second reading there was need for the House Committee on NDDC to bring these criticisms to the knowledge of the board of the Commission as well as ensure that the board gave account of its unspent funds for the 2009 budget.