The House of Representatives said at the weekend that it has traced $12.93bn of the $16bn allegedly spent by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to revive the comatose power sector which yielded no desired results.

Mr Godwin Ndudi Elumelu told newsmen that preliminary investigations by the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel has revealed that the former administration also took $460m loan from the World Bank and vowed to unveil how the money was expended and also recover the balance of $3.07billion.

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had alleged that the former administration spent $10bn to revive the comatose energy sector with no desired results.

"While we are targeting 6000MW by 2009, the $10bn invested in the sector between 2000 and 2007 has not translated into power generation, transmission and distribution. So we are exercising caution to ensure that any further funds to the sector would translate into production and delivery of energy to the ordinary Nigerian".

But Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, countered him, alleging that $16bn was actually spent on the sector. "Only if we plan like this and monitor output periodically would we be able to prevent a situation where $16bn was spent on the Power Reform with negative results".

However, Elumelu said the discovery of $12.93bn expenditure has made the committee to believe that $16bn was spent and not $10bn. "We have gone beyond $10bn, we're no longer talking of $10bn, and we've gotten up to $12.93bn. But we're convinced that actually, $16bn was expended. But the explanations given, which in the cause of our public hearing, we would ask more questions, the difference between $12.93 now and the $16bn is what they're claiming was actually budgeted in 2007 but not released. But we'll find out where is that funds," he stated.

The Committee has summoned the World Bank Managing Director, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to explain details of the loans obtained by Nigeria from the World Bank and who applied for the money, for what purpose and how it was expended. Okonjo-Iweala was former Minister of Finance in the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chairperson Economic Reform Team of the then administration.

Elumelu said, "We have written to the World Bank asking the Managing Director to appear before us to, one, who applied for the loan, okay. For what purpose, we need to see the offer letter of the loan and also the money disbursed, which account did they use to receive the $460m, and how did they manage the money in the account. We need to see the statement of account to track down and see how the money was expended".

Elumelu who gave a breakdown of channels of the funds said while $10 million was traceable to the Ministry of Energy, $500 million to the Rural Electrification Agency, $1.62 billion from the NNPC joint venture as well as $3.07 billion to NIPP. Energy Commission of Nigeria, (ECN) $10m, loans from World Bank and other Agencies, $460m, PHCN internally generated Revenue, (IGL) $4.06bn, NNPC contributory funds and as well as joint venture for new power plants $1.62bn. Now, that joint venture included Shell, Elf, Chevron, Agip and Mobil. These were the people that formed part of the $1.62bn.

He said $4.06 billion came from internally generated revenue of the PHCN. The committee, he said, will be interested in how the contracts were executed as well as the yield.

"We want to look at the contracts. Who did the jobs? Did they actually do what they were supposed to do? For the NNPC joint venture we want to know how it was also spent. Did they build power plants and forward the cost to the federal government. Or did they just make the money available for the contracts to be executed."

The member representing Aniocha North/South/Oshimili North/South Federal Constituency of Delta State, however cast doubts about the $4.06m internally generated revenue by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Plc from 1999 to 2007.

"We are also not too convinced that only $4.06bn was actually generated from PHCN; internally generated revenue. We have the feeling that they generated more than that and we intend to check their total expenditure and the revenue profile from 1999 to 2007 to actually ascertain our preliminary findings that had expended the receipt. So, that is the position we're now", he added.

The Committee has released time table for appearance before it the persons invited, with the President, Umaru Musa Yar'adua and Speaker of the House Demeji Bankole will give their testimonies tomorrow.