The South East Development Commission has issued a public statement responding to the furore triggered by the appearance of the management before Senate Committee.
Mark Okoye II, MD/CEO led the SEDC team appearance before the Senate Committee on South East Development Commission on Tuesday chaired by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
Now, Okoye’s team is pushing back against characterisations of its spending as wasteful and providing context it says lawmakers did not have before them during the hearing.
The statement, dated 9 June 2026, addresses two flashpoints from the Senate session, the ₦153 million spent on its Abuja liaison office, and the ₦2.5 billion categorised as “implied expenditure”, and attempts to reframe both as either routine institutional costs or as yet-undisbursed budget commitments.
The Abuja Office: Cumulative Cost, Not a Single Transaction
On the liaison office, SEDC said the ₦153 million does not represent the cost of renting a single room, as the framing during Tuesday’s hearing implied, but rather the cumulative total of establishing and running a functional office at the Congress Building in Maitama, Abuja, from its inauguration on 11 February 2025 through to the present date.
The commission said the office serves as its operational hub for engagement with the National Assembly, federal ministries and agencies, development finance institutions, and strategic partners, engagements it described as central to unlocking the federal resources and partnerships on which its regional mandate depends.
The commission also said its board and management have prioritised relocating to its designated headquarters in Enugu at the earliest opportunity, and that rather than procure an entirely new facility, which it said would have represented a greater call on public resources, it had secured a building transfer from the Enugu State Government.
The commission said a formal agreement is already in place to fast-track the rehabilitation of that facility, with the rehabilitation contract addressed separately in the statement.
“Implied Expenditure”: Money Committed, Not Spent
The ₦2.5 billion described as “implied expenditure”, which drew sharp questioning from senators including Enyinnaya Abaribe, Victor Umeh and Austin Akobundu, is, according to SEDC, a contract awarded for the rehabilitation of the Commission’s headquarters facility in Enugu.
The commission said the contract was awarded in line with the Public Procurement Act 2007, following approval by the Bureau of Public Procurement and with the concurrence of the supervising ministry. It characterised the figure as a budgeted obligation that has been lawfully committed but not yet disbursed, standard practice in public sector financial management.
“To be precise: this money has not left the Commission’s accounts,” the statement said.
No Capital Budget Released
Underlying much of the commission’s defence is a claim that complicates the Senate’s premise: that SEDC has not received any disbursement from its capital budget at all.
The commission said all expenditure to date has been drawn from recurrent resources, directed at building institutional foundations, staff salaries and arrears for personnel operational since February 2025, capacity training for seconded staff, the establishment of its Abuja and Enugu operational bases, and procurement of ICT infrastructure.
Capital project development work, it said, has been advanced using every available resource and goodwill, specifically to ensure that groundwork is in place for swift execution once capital releases are made.
The commission noted that it received its first disbursement of funds only after more than ten months in existence, a delay it said shaped how its early expenditure profile was structured.
Proceedings Adjourned, Deadline Stands
Despite the public clarification, SEDC’s immediate obligation to the Senate Committee remains unchanged.
The Commission confirmed that proceedings were adjourned following Tuesday’s session and that it is required to submit comprehensive documentation, covering contracts, payment schedules, and all supporting records, on or before 23 June 2026.
The Commission said it had welcomed the documentation request and sought only a short window to collate and transmit materials at the level of detail required.
Whether the explanations now in the public domain satisfy Senator Orji Kalu and his committee will become clearer when the session resumes.
The committee’s preliminary finding that roughly ₦3.6 billion has been spent against the ₦16.6 billion released, is the figure lawmakers say they want properly accounted for.
