THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved an additional variation cost to settle consultancy services for the forensic audit on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The N765,974,975.50 cost variation was secured at the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday.
“Today at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, the memo on the additional costs of carrying out the forensic audit is the size of what was considered and approved by Council,” Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Umana disclosed to newsmen after the meeting.
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Umana said the original contract sum meant for the lead consultant and 16 other field forensic auditors was N1.786 billion.
He noted that the auditors while carrying out their tasks, discovered more projects than what they had initially planned, which took additional seven months.
The minister said 3,773 additional projects were considered by the auditors.
According to Umana, the additional variation cost approved by FEC was to cover the additional tasks carried out by the forensic auditors.
“You’ll recall that for this exercise, a lead consultant was appointed who had to work with 16 other field auditors and the initial contract zone which covered the lead consultants and the field forensic auditors was N1.786 billion.
“These auditors have since concluded their work but in the course of carrying out this work, it was discovered that they had to deal with many more projects than were initially envisaged. And the exercise also took an additional seven months. The total number of additional projects considered by the auditors was 3,773. So for reasons of the additional number of projects and the additional time taken, Council today approved a revised additional sum of N765,974,975.50 to cover the additional works done by the forensic auditors,” Umana said.