Cosmas Ekpunobi
1 October 2008
Abuja — Presidency has finally overruled the Senate on the choice of BNP Paribas as the official consultant in the planned sale of Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NITEL). This is even as the National Council on Privatization (NCP) insists on the services of the same agency being used in the failed PENTASCOPE /NITEL deal.
NCP has also given Transnational Corporation, (TRANSCOP), beneficiary of the second controversial sale of NITEL December as deadline to hands off and prepare NITEL for full scale privatisation by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
The period is to enable Transcorp put NITEL in good shape and make the company more attractive for investors.
Senate however lost its long battle to stop BNP Paribas as BPE consultant for the third time in the planned sale of NITEL as the NCP,in a recent meeting presided over by Vice president Good luck Jonathan finally okeyed the agency for the plump job .
The decision of the council was said to have jolted the senate committee on communication which had earlier expressed fears that the selection of Paribas which had served as consultant in the last failed attempts to sale NITEL may not be in the interest of Nigerians.
Chairman of the council, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, in a response to a recent letter by the chairman Senate Committee on Communication, Senator Sylvester Anyanwu, confirmed Paribas which was a key actor in the PENSCOPE /NITEL deal as the consultant in the fresh attempt to privatize NITEL
Senator Anyanwu in a recent letter to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua specifically cautioned against the choice of Paribas as the official consultant in the fresh deal
The letter read inter alia 'I write to appraise his Excellency on the need to exercise caution on the selection of BNP Paribas as Consultants/ Adviser to the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), on the proposed core investor selection for Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL).
As part of its ongoing investigation into the management and operations of NITEL, BNP Paribas has been identified in the following roles:
Preparation of the 2005 NITEL Valuation report on which the sale price was benchmarked;
Consultant/Adviser to BPE on the failed ORASCOM Privatisation Attempt; and Consultant/Adviser to BPE on the failing TRANSCORP Privatisation attempt; good number of the present employees of BNP Paribas ( Nigeria ) are all former BPE staff.
"Giving the antecedents of BNP Paribas it is the opinion of the Committee on Communications that there is a need to proceed with caution on the appointment of BNP Paribas on yet another privatization attempt. It is our opinion that the potential loses to this Nation and indeed to the future survival of NITEL, require that every attempt is made to ensure that a credible and competent consultant is appointed".
Meanwhile the senate committee on communication has vowed to unravel the circumstances surrounding the hasty lending of N75 billion to TRANSCOP by a consortium of banks a few weeks after the sale of NITEL to the company. The committee said it would go ahead with its planned public hearing on the sale of NITEL in its renewed bid to ensure that only a company with both financial and technical competence buys over NITEL .
Chairman of the committee Senator Anyanwu in an interview with Daily Champion said it was curious for TRANSCOP to have obtained such loan given the huge government investment in NITEL as at the time it was bought over by TRANSCOP.
'Once more, we have written to the banks, reminding them of the recklessness of their action, as it has put in jeopardy the activities of the Federal Government in finding a suitable technical investor for NITEL.
All parties inqlved have also been requested to stay all action on their respective claims pending the outcome of our investigation and public hearing.
"The banks must be commended for their desire to lend to the development of infrastructure in the public sector, but we must all be careful to ensure that our good intentions are not marred by a lack of due diligence.
"On interconnection to NITEL facilities the committee is also investigating the use of another N1billion , unaccounted fund form SAT 3 provisions in NITEL' Several corporate bodies were requested to submit to the Committee information and evidence of their utilization and payment for NITEL SAT-3 facilities.
While the responses were interesting in terms of what it revealed, it was important to note that the under listed operators failed to respond, and it is in their best interest to do so. MTN Communications Nigeria; Starcomms Pic; Globacom Ltd; Reliance Telecommunications Ltd (RELTEL); Accelon Ltd; Chinto Technology; Kkon Technologies Limited; Gateway Communications/ GS Telecomms; Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG); First Bank of Nigeria; Prest Cable & Satellite (PRESTEL); VGC Communications; Direct On PC Limited; Multi-Links Telecomms;. Chevron Nigeria Limited; LM Ericsson; Shell Petroleum Development Company; 21st Century Technologies Ltd; Equant Nigeria Ltd.
If they fail to respond, the Committee will invoke its powers under sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution to ensure that they comply. We are also looking at ways to ensure that companies who failed to pay for the services they utilized will be sanctioned and required to pay triple the fees as restitution, in addition to any other civil and criminal penalties. "Financial Irregularities at NITEL Pic; Investigations at NITEL Office revealed the following irregularities. While a lot of them were not surprising it was saddening to come face to face with the reality of the internal and willful mismanagement, and abuse of public trust".
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Daily Champion. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
