Leadership (Abuja)
Osunde Adesuwa
5 May 2008
The House of Representatives committee probing the power sector has expressed dismay with the dismal performance of contractors handling contracts across the country, saying only divine intervention could salvage the power sector.
This is just as the committee has reaffirmed that it will not falter in its assignment with vigour, saying that the National Assembly was determined not to turn a blind eye to issues that were of national interest, no matter whose ox was gored.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Godwin Ndudi Elumelu, said this in Abuja at the weekend at the end of the tour of power projects in the North-east and North-central geo-political zones, asserted that most of the contractors simply lied to them during the public hearing.
He said the contractors had told the committee at the public hearing that over 80 percent of the contracts had been achieved at the sites, only for the committee to discover, to it chagrin, that not even up to 10 percent of the jobs had been achieved. We need prayers for the power sector; we need divine intervention,"he said.
Speaking on the likely recommendation of the committee, the chairman said their recommendations would focus on the future, particularly as the power sector was crucial to the realisation of Vision 2020.
He said: "Our recommendations will look at the future and measures that are needed to safeguard public funds from getting into wrong hands. How do we achieve Vision 2020? We will give a fair view of Vision 2020."
The committee had discovered during the fact- finding tour of the projects in the North-east and parts of North-central that some of the contractors only mobilised to site and claimed to have made placements for equipment after the commencement of the probe.
The committee also discovered that some of the erring contractors had been heavily mobilised, as few of them are yet to receive a dime from the government. These include Sinergi Engineering and Chemo-Technics Ltd, which are handling a big chunk of the National Integrated Power Projects in North-east and North-central respectively.
However, some of the contractors, such as Gibson Engineering, which is handling the 1x15 MVA sub-station in Gboko, Benue State, among others and North China Power Engineering, which is handling the Makurdi-Jos 330KV DC transmission lines and sub-stations, among others, received heavy mobilisation fees but did not have anything to show for it.
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The fact not made public at the outset of the probe has now surfaced that a good number of the projects awarded during the last administration are still on-going and have the potential of adding thousands of MWs to the grid on completion and commissioning. If the present administration and the committee probing the projects do not DELIBERATELY act to deceive the public, details of the on-going projects SHOULD be lisited stipulating when the last of them will be commissioned and HOW MANY FURTHER MWs they would contribute to the grid as per contracts. The chairman of the committee probing the power contracts is accusing the contractors for telling lies even though all the projects are based on contracts signed and binding on both the contractors and the government but Mr Elumelu has never for once mentioned anything about contracts and liabilities of both parties as if the power project is a bunch of VILLAGE PROJECTS for few hundred dollars not based on any written contract. It is disturbing to hear Mr Elumelun asking for devine intervention in the power sector indiectly showing that the projects awarded by the former administraton seem to be the ONLY AND MAIN BASIS FOR POWER SUPPLY the present administration is counting on. It is not less disturbing to realize that Mr. Elumelu is seemingly planning and targeting ONLY for 2020 with the possible propensity to tie down the development of the country for the 12 years interim period. WOW!