Stanley Nkwazema
2 April 2008
Calabar — Another shocking revelation greeted members of the House Committee on Power and Steel yesterday as they continued their tour of power projects sites in their probe of the funds released to the sector between 1999 and 2007.
The committee, which left Akwa Ibom for Cross River State yesterday morning, was told that the Federal Government overpaid the contractors, Marubeni Nigeria Limited, by N224 million.
This amount was paid to the contractors as "unforseen expenditure", even though it was above the agreed contract sum.
It also emerged that Marubeni, whose project was among the first to be awarded, was fully paid by the federal government to the tune of N19.4 billion for the Calabar 561mw GT power station.
The committee also learnt that apart from collecting over $151 million, Marubeni has completed only 30 per cent of the civil works while the project is now eight months behind schedule.
However, Governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke, who had appeared before the House Committee to explain his role in the projects when he was Minister of Power and Steel, asked the committee not to rely on hearsay as they inspect the plants and sites of the power projects.
Imoke told the committee members that it was good they were embarking on this fact-finding mission and not relying on hearsay, adding that visiting the sites "will afford you the opportunity to see, first hand, what is going on. It will also ginger those that are not working and spur others to take the job seriously. They will be on their toes".
Imoke, who received the committee at 12. 40 pm in his office, recommended that non-performing contractors should be punished.
"The projects," he said, "have been on for quite some time and should have been completed. You must make recommendations for the completion of these projects."
The governor told the committee at the Government House, Calabar that after the visit, "you should sanction those who have failed to perform and commend those who excelled. For us in Cross River, it is our hope and belief that your visit will facilitate the completion of the projects".
The committee is expected to start a tour of locations in the state before leaving for Bayelsa on Thursday.
"The projects were designed to create relief across the country," the governor said. "It is imperative that they be completed."
When the lawmakers stopped over at the Calabar 561mw Generation Power station along the Itu road, Ikot Nyong in Onim Ankiong Clan, Odukpani Highway, the Site Manager of Marubeni Corporation of Japan, Derek Charman, a British citizen, explained that two site managers who earlier started the project abandoned work before he was brought in last November on a rescue mission.
He would not state why the previous site managers jumped ship.
Charman said: "We have had no financial problems, just the roads, but now we have been able to do about 30 per cent of the civil works on site."
Explaining his position, in which he tacitly asked for more grace before he could accomplish the task before him, Charman said: "I arrived here November 15 last year. I am determined to complete this job and I know its importance. We have had delays. But I will need one more dry season that means I can deliver the job between January and April 2009."
On why the job was not started till the completion date elapsed, he said "we have improved since I came in".
The statement by the Managing Director of Marubeni, Mr. Toru Sato, that the community was delaying the job was countered by the Clan Head of Ankiong Clan Council of Odukpani Local Government, retired Brigadier General Bassey Asuquo, who confronted him (Sato) at the Calabar Port.
Asuquo disclosed that after the ground breaking by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on March 10, 2006, rather than complete the job with the first phase of the proposed five turbines scheduled for July 2007 and the last in November last year, there were only unanticipated and technical delays for the better part of the project.
The sub-contractor handling the civil and earth works at the project site along Itu road, Gitto Construction, explained that contractors handling big jobs in Nigeria tell a lot of lies without carrying out the necessary tests.
Another contractor blamed nature and topography for the delay in executing their project.
The Site Manager, Emmanuel Sandrello, told THISDAY that they never envisaged what they saw when they moved in to the site as they had spent so much time blasting rocks hidden atop soft soil before they could proceed with piling and ejection on the points for the turbines.
He however explained that the civil works would be ready before the end of the year as they work along with the main contractors to remedy the situation.
At the site of the 30.31 KV sub station in Calabar, the members were told that the contract was awarded in 2001 on paper without a site by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
The Consultant Engineer of PH Power, Mr. Abdulrauf Jimoh, a Nigerian, told the committee that three contractors earlier given the job abandoned it before MBH Engineering, owned and run by Indians, took over the job.
This company too has already cashed over 90 per cent of its contract sum.
He told the committee that government has so far paid over £8,987,000 out of the £9 million for the procurement of the equipment and so far, it has also paid N306,956,000 for the local content out of N461 million.
He said the job was awarded to the contractor who was asked to go and look for a flat land to site the project but Alston and Ariva who were the initial company that started the job all left because they asked that the initial bid be reviewed. He estimated 22 per cent as the state of jobs done at the site.
When the committee members visited the Calabar Port, they were shown round the Warehouse of Intels Nigeria handling the clearing of the goods for the projects. The company explained that they stored the turbines which cannot stand the harsh weather inside the terminal building while others have been lying outside since last year.
They also said that they had so far handled about eight vessels since they starred in 2006.
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