By Jimitota Onoyume

NIGER Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is to redress complaints of right of way  compensation over its projects in the region.

Managing Director of the Commission, Mr Nsima Ekere, gave the assurance at the commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, when the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers paid him a courtesy visit.

NDDC

He said there had been several complaints on right of way over some of its projects, adding that they could not be resolved in the past because of paucity of funds.

Ekere said: “The fund is always a bit low so that by the time a consultant finishes evaluation and brings a report, you find out that what is in the contract is not adequate to pay compensation.”

He promised to clear outstanding claims to estate surveyors and valuers, saying they would be addressed holistically through a joint committee of the NDDC and NIESV, to be headed by the Commission’s Executive Director, Projects, EDP.

“The issues will be treated on a case by case basis. We are now doing things differently by using the 4-R initiative to add value to the process,” he added.

The Chairman, Rivers State Branch of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr. Elliot Orupabo, urged the commission to set up a valuation unit headed by a registered estate surveyor to help resolve challenges of compensation because “the absence of this unit is a major lacuna which the engineers in the Project Management Department have capitalized upon to vet and tamper with compensation valuation reports prepared by registered estate surveyors and valuers without recourse to the consultants.”