The cost of the Nigerian Integrated Power Project (NIPP) embarked upon by former president Olusegun Obasanjo is alleged to have been inflated.

The Hon Ndudi Elumelu-led probe committee in the course of its investigation however discovered that the sum of $13.28bn was expended on the power sector during the period, with further unfunded commitments of over $12bn.

The Nigerian Times reported that project costs were routinely and massively inflated in a number of cases up to 100 per cent. "The most troubling was the extremely low performance level after three or four years of commencement of projects," the report said.

"In about 50 per cent of the projects visited, contractors collected billions of naira and disappeared from project sites while most project consultants maintained a conspiratorial silence.

"The investigation showed beyond doubt that the major problem of the Nigerian power sector during the review period was not the means to execute projects but efficiency in the management of resources. The weakest point in the project failure was in plan execution which is a key factor in the success of any project", it stated.

"Project management teams treated planned time schedules as if they did not exist. The intended power projects were part of a larger reform programme of the administration but as it has turned out, the infrastructure reforms have not made a difference in the country."

It was also found that failure to execute plans did not arise from technical incompetence but from weak management and institutional processes.

"What is lacking is not capital or technical expertise but fiscal discipline, programme supervision by responsible consultants and a willingness to bring erring contractors and officials to book. With the phenomenal revenues accruing to the country from crude oil over the past ten years, resources have never been as generously available as they are in Nigerian history," it said.

The report further alleged that huge sums were spent but there was little or nothing to show for the expenditure in terms of extra megawatts of electricity. "The technology to deliver sustainable power and other infrastructure solutions in Nigeria is available in the world market. Our problem is mainly human and managerial rather Than Technological," the report stated.

This report encapsulates the findings of the committee on the investigation conducted into the huge sums of money spent on power generation, transmission and distribution between June l999 and May 2007.

In the course of the investigation, the committee reviewed l05 memoranda from public officials, private citizens, corporate organisations and non-governmental bodies. In addition to the memoranda submitted, the committee held public hearing from 11TH March till 12TH May, 2008. Activities of the Committee climaxed with a tour of project sites all over the Federation.

The public hearing also revealed that many strange things happened in the power sector during the period, including financial, technical and legal irregularities.