Ordinarily, with the creation of Desopadec, the oil communities ought to have their problems taken care of without much ado. Information from the grapevine that filtered from the commission has it that the budget of Desopadec is between N30-N35bn annually out of which the Governor sends in N2.5 bn monthly. After the payment of salaries and other running cost of the commission, N100m is given to the contractors forum for the five ethnic nationalities to pay their contractors, about N20-N25m to each ethnic nationalities contractor whose contract certificate is not less than N49m, a contractor receives between N2-N3m, most of whom do not even benefit, the Board members may pay themselves, and as well as the payment of the list from Governor's office, leaving the average contractor with nothing because he has no Godfather as the case may be

Given that the budget is N35bn, the N2.5bn monthly will not service the annual budget of N35bn which pushes the debt of contractors to another year . Hence the indebtedness ran for years till Sheriff Oborewori paid N8.4 to clear part of the debt .These accumulated debts ought to be included in the following year's budget to cater for the shortfall . It's not clear whether subsequent budgets take cognisant of the previous debts , if so, one is at a loss why debts are left to stockpile over years. This is where the Finance Department ought to intelligently articulate the fiscal policies or problems to the Board for the Governor's perusal

Here lies the lacuna, either the Finance Department is not advising management of Board or the Board is not presenting the challenges to the House of Assembly whose responsibility it is for the oversight functions of the commission

Further more, the retirees are not paid years after retirement, no adequate health facilities, no official vehicles for senior management staff, no vehicles for projects supervision, no adequate staff training, and poor supply of stationery, these are very disturbing issues.

The Okowa Administration abolished the old system of the commission and replaced it with the NDDC model, yet the financing and mode of operation is the direct opposite of NDDC. Interactions with the engineers of the commission and their methods of operation show exceptional abilities, but their rewards are negligible or infinitesimal. Now, could it be that the above scenario is a result of poor representation in the budget, if so, who's to blame. Certainly, a more robust budget is required to counter the above matters

It is obvious that the problems of Desopadec are not properly ventilated to the appropriate authority, otherwise no issues would be pending, with the monumental monthly allocations to the State

In a situation where the budget is not prepared to accommodate the unforseen, a supplementary budget is supposed to be presented to tackle whatever challenges that may arise, and that could forestall any crisis

From all indications, stakeholders seem unaware of the volume of funds that is supposed to be forwarded to Desopadec on a monthly basis. The statistics are there for everyone to scrutinize. The recent allocation of N120 bn to the oil producing States out of which N30% or N35% goes to Delta State as the highest oil producing State, amounts to N36bn or thereabout and by the law establishing Desopadec, N18bn should go to the commission being the 50% of the 13% derivation. That equals about N200bn annually. Should the government have need for funds for other areas, and all the funds are not released, it doesn't justify the release of N35bn or N40bn out of the N200 bn as budget funding . It's clearly insufficient to address the huge problem of Desopadec

Certainly, an overhaul of Desopadec is needed to halt the breaches in the commission.