Stanley Nkwazema
8 July 2008
Abuja — The House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel which probed the expenses in the Power Sector may have indicted a former minister of Power and Steel over the handling of projects in the sector.
THISDAY also learnt that though the committee in specific cases recommended that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should come in to recover some funds believed to have been stolen in respect of some contracts, the agency may have to wait till after the House has come up with its final recommendations on the matter.
The committee, which organised a public hearing on the expenses in the sector in March this year and later embarked on a nationwide on-the-spot assessment of the power projects in the country, is expected to submit its report to the House tomorrow.
In order to put together its report, the committee led by Hon. Ndudi Elumelu holed itself up in an Abuja hotel for three days.
Though the committee got many reports from the public hearing and zone by zone presentations, it was learnt that one of the two state governors involved in the award of Power Sector contracts may have received knocks in the committee's final report.
Specifically, the former minister is being accused of misleading former President Olusegun Obasanjo in some of the decisions taken in respect of the award and execution of most of the NIPP contracts.
A member of the committee who spoke with THISDAY last night in Abuja said the panel indicted a former minister of Power and Steel but refused to give details.
He said the panel rounded off the compilation of its report last week and traveled during the weekend.
Though he said copies of the report were submitted to the leadership of the House last Friday, he stated that he was not sure when the Business and Rules Committee would list the presentation of the report on the Order Paper.
The report is said to be in eight volumes.
The lawmakers will be given copies of the report, study the recommendations and come back to the House for debate on the document before the House can make its final recommendation on the matter.
The committee had in the first phase of its report recommended that the Central Bank of Nigeria should stop further payments from the NIPP accounts.
It also asked that the contracts be reviewed to determine the actual costs and the variations since most of the contracts had several variations which were not in the original document signed by the parties.
In the past one month when feelers began to go round that the committee was about submitting its report, several stakeholders in the power sector have made it a point of duty to visit the National Assembly to make inquiries on what the Power and Steel committee has recommended to the House.
The Leader of the Opposition in the House, Hon. Mohammed Ali Ndume, had in a motion he moved alongside 150 others, decried the $16 billion spending in the sector without commensurate results.
The House therefore mandated the Power and Steel Committee to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the sector and ascertain the exact amount spent by the former President Obasanjo regime between1999 and 2007.
But THISDAY learnt the committee may have discovered that the amount spent by the Obasanjo regime may be lower than the figure bandied by some of those who testified before it.
The committee was said to have confirmed that the Obasanjo government did not spend more than $13 billion during the period.
Chairman of the Committee, Elumelu, could not be reached last night for comments on the committee's report.
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As pointed out in this report, the probing committee is just now to determine the ACTUAL COST of the power project and the variations. This is quite interesting to learn that todate the cost has not been established after several months of probe. One wonders, under this circumstance, where resident Yar'Adua got $10b spent on the power plants from and where the figures of $16b and $13b came from. Any reasonable person or organization would expect that facts and figures relevant to such a very important matter that affects the life of every individual citizen of a nation… [Read Full Text]