Abuja — Indications have emerged that the House of Representatives may have concluded arrangements to investigate the reasons behind the alleged sabotage in the sale of Nigeria Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and its subsidiary, Mobile Telecommunication Limited (Mtel).

This investigation is coming on the heels of the disclosure that the Federal Government had already committed N70 billion to settle staff liabilities in the bodies.

A report by the committee obtained by our correspondent made case for urgent public hearing to prevent failure of current efforts to sell NITEL and Mtel.

It will be recalled that there have been three unsuccessful attempts to sell NITEL and Mtel to Investors International London Limited (IILL), Orascom Telecom of Egypt and Transcorp.

Another attempt to bring in management contractors, Pentascope International, also failed to yield the desired result.

However, the House Committee on Privatisation, led by Hon. Braimoh Abass, noted that in exercise of its oversight function, it requested for relevant documents from the director of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) to facilitate the committee's appraisal of "numerous petitions" arising from past attempts at the privatisation of NITEL/Mtel.

It said that the submission of such vital document would enable it report accurately to the House in plenary session for further legislative action.

The committee quoted the BPE submission which listed the three unsuccessful attempts to sell NITEL and Mtel and the fact that "the appointment of Pentascope International B.V. Private Limited as management contractors actually depleted the value of the enterprise rather than enhance its fortunes."

It expressed the fear that the image of the country would be badly dented if current efforts to sell the two organisations fail.

Accordingly, it insisted that "every effort must be made to ensure the successful privatisation of NITEL/Mtel this time around, because NITEL/Mtel is currently in a very bad operational state. Workers are being owed over 15 months' salaries.

"There are huge outstanding liabilities that are mounting daily since little or no revenue is being earned to resolve them according the BPE."

The committee lamented that it was unfortunate that information from the BPE on its current efforts to privatise NITEL/Mtel was not "confidence inspiring."

According to the committee, more critical input was needed from stakeholders to "collectively fashion out the best solution to the perennial problem of privatisation of NITEL/Mtel."

It said that it was apparent from the submission of BPE to the committee that government was undecided as to whether to NITEL/MTEL as "a unit or unbundled."

It noted, "According to BPE, the actual debts of NITEL/Mtel have not been determined; up till now, it has not been possible to conduct physical due diligence because staff are not available in relevant offices, on account of non-payment of salaries."

The committee also quoted BPE as saying, "The current value of NITEL/Mtel is not determined while the status of the liquidation of the staff pension fund is not known."

It said that labour issues crucial for successful privatisation of NITEL/Mtel were yet to be resolved with over 40 cases pending while N70 billion had already been committed by the Federal Government to the settlement of staff liabilities.

It said that there was no doubt that a public hearing could shed sufficient light on the emerging facts, as well as provide accurate and adequate information needed to aid the committee's deliberation and subsequent action by the National Assembly in furtherance of government's privatisation policy.

The committee noted that NITEL/Mtel privatisation needed legislative intervention to "rescue the staff of the company and facilitate transparent transaction with due process and international best practices."