In summary (so far)
Vanguard (Lagos) has a great summary of the Nigerian House's investigation into the scandal surrounding the attempts to improve that country's electrical grid. Transparency seems to be improving in Nigeria's notoriously corrupt system of government spending.Power Sector Probe, Heads Will Roll
"Seven days of testimonies at the public hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel organized to unearth the mystery behind the huge expenditure of $16billion on the sector with no commensurate results has confounded Nigerians with the amount of colossal waste the power sector turned out to be in the eight years of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
"It started like what sounded like an innocuous remark by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who posited... that his predecessor expended about $10billion on the sector while at the helm of affairs with virtually nothing to show for it.
"The House of Representatives... mandated its Committee on Power and Steel led by Hon. Ndudi Elumelu to investigate the claim and report back to the entire House for further action.
"Before the committee could settle down to its assignment, it came to light that the amount spent on power... may in fact be more than what the president disclosed as... there was another $6billion extra budgetary expenses on power during the period under review.
"... the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, revealed to the committee that at least 34 of the companies which had been awarded the power contracts under NIPP were not registered. The public hearing was also to learn that prominent Nigerians including former Head of State, Gen. Abdusalam Abubakar, had interests in many of the defaulting companies.
"He had been named as the chairman of Energo Nigeria Limited which in 2003 got a N19billion transmission substation contract, collected $13billion in advance payment yet the consultants don't even know the site of the project...
"With the public hearing over,the committee now begins the business of sifting the tonnes of document it received with a view to making a recommendation to the House which would form the basis of further action on the probe. No date has been set for the submission of the report but there is little doubt that Nigerians would be anxious to see the outcome and its bearing on the epileptic power situation in the country...
"We have now identified people who are part of the problems in the sector. We are going to invoke our powers under the Constitution against anybody whenever it is necessary to do so. We have the powers of investigations, and we would recommend to the appropriate authorities like the Attorney General's Office and other relevant agencies to prosecute anybody we find culpable," the House spokesman... told Sunday Vanguard, weekend."
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Labels: corruption, Nigeria, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:03 AM
2 Comments:
From the Daily Champion (Lagos):
The U.S $16 Billion Power Sector Probe
"THE probe into the $16 billion power sector expenditure by the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel is quite revealing. One of such revelations is the fact that those who govern the country... are often insincere and deceptive...
"The sordid affair in the power sector portrays our leaders, especially those directly involved in the $16 billion projects contracts as lacking an understanding of what a verile power sector could do for a developing economy like ours. For any economy to move forward, its power sector must be stable, available and accessible to the petty trader, the entrepreneur and the industrialist as well as the house wife and the fun seeker or tourist. The absence of stable electricity in the country has made it impossible for the country to jump-start its economy through massive investments and employment...
"Again, there is always the temptation to ethnicise this type of scandal. The panel should refuse to be blackmailed into thinking that it is carrying out an ethnic agenda or a vendetta against those involved in the power contracts scams. They should remain resolute because the absence of electricity is a disservice to all Nigerians whether they are from the north or south. Even those Nigerians involved in the contracts did not consider such divides while perpetrating their atrocities against the people of Nigeria. Let the law be made to take its full course, no matter whose ox is gored..."
From This Day (Lagos):
Shock, Disbelief As House Panel Tours Power Projects
"The inspection tour of power plants under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) by the House Committee on Power began yesterday with an avalanche of revelations on the controversial project...
"The 54-man team from the House and Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) expressed shock as most of the contractors had nothing to show for the huge sums of money they have so far received.
"One of the contractors, the committee was told, only visited the project site for the first time about three weeks ago...
"While on inspection of the New Haven distribution and transmission substation located at Ikot Una near Ikot Ikpene yesterday, the parliamentarians were, yet again, shocked to discover that the contractor had nothing to show for the contract for which he had already claimed over N17 billion...
"It was the same story at the N1.78 billion 2x75 MVA injection sub station at Abak, where the controversial Laymeher of Germany (project design consultants) and Steag Encotech (project consultants) have their sites.
"The contractors, Benbok Engineering Limited, based in Abuja, have so far collected the sum of N278 million but the Committee noted that only the fencing of the one-and-a-half plot of land donated by the local government has been completed..."
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