THE bidding conducted by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) for core investors in firms controlled by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) may have run into trouble.
Four states within the jurisdiction of the Benin Distribution Company, under the auspices of the Southern Electrical Distribution Company (SEDC), have faulted the transaction, alleging sharp practices.
But the Director of Communications at BPE, Chukwuma Nwokoh, justified the transaction, saying: “We followed due process, requested for proposal and we did not deviate. We followed the bible of our transaction. They (SEDC) came second but it is only the National Council on Privatisation that will say the final (winner). We recognise that they made investments and it is because of that state governments will benefit from the Federal Government’s 40 per cent equity.”
Addressing a press conference in Abuja yesterday, the governors of Delta (Emmanuel Uduaghan), Edo (Adams Oshiomhole) and Ekiti (Kayode Fayemi) on behalf of their counterpart in Ondo State, Segun Mimiko, faulted the biding, arguing that SEDC presented the best bid for the company and that they were alarmed that BPE announced an Indian company, Vigeo Consortium Ltd, as the preferred bidder.
They argued that the four states had invested heavily in the company preparatory to taking it over before the bidding began.
“Our states have invested heavily in power generation, transmission and distribution across the length and breadth of our respective states as we recognise the importance of power as the pre-condition for socio-economic growth and industrialisation of our states. It is in the above vein that we participated and came out as the most technically competent and have the consortium that is most suited to the peculiarities of our region,” they said.
They further argued that it was in recognition of these peculiarities that the states floated the company to ensure smooth transition in the privatisation exercise.
“In our region, you cannot succeed in operating the utility without the participation of the state governments, on ground knowledge and relationships with the different stakeholders such as youths, communities, leadership etc. Our consortium possesses all these and no other does,” they added.
Faulting the choice of Vigeo Consortium Ltd, they said: “Experts have said that Average Technical Commercial and Collection Loss (ATC&C) losses as the single basis for selecting the preferred bidder after qualifying technically is completely flawed. It is neither here nor there. It is simply arithmetic progression statement, which does not in any way demonstrate your ability to succeed post-privatisation. The technical qualification criteria also failed to take into consideration the peculiarities of the various discos, otherwise, why would a company whose current service territory is 500 square kilometres be technically qualified to operate a 57,000 square kilometres service territory in an area like the Niger Delta without any local knowledge of this troubled area at all?’’
They added: “The ATC&C losses posted by some of the bidders like the one in Benin DISCO is completely unrealistic and even the regulators know that. They do not even know the area, yet, they want to do something in five years that they have not been able to achieve in 11 years in an urban 500 square kilometres territory they are currently operating. You can see that these are forgeries to just win the bid and thereafter, our people and states will begin to suffer and the government of the day will suffer the political backlash. Our consortium is led by the industry leader in India covering 4,328 villages and 43 towns, the Gold Shield award winner for 2011 for utility excellence who has posted the biggest loss reduction ever in Asia.’’
Declaring their intention to petition President Goodluck Jonathan about the alleged injustice, the group said: “It is unacceptable. They can’t improve power supply. The process was full of fraud. We are not only going to draw the attention of BPE to it, but will also see the president over this fraudulent transaction.”
Also yesterday, the Federal Government assured that its electricity sector reform agenda was on track, assuring that Nigeria would witness what he described as “tremendous power supply” in the next one year.
Minister of State for Power, Darius Ishaku, said in Abuja yesterday that the government was unrelenting in the implementation of its electricity road map launched last year.
Already, the National Institute of Power Training of Nigeria (NAPTIN) has upgraded its facilities and commenced the training and retraining of existing electricity workers to prepare them for greater productivity post-privatisation.
Ishaku, who spoke at the foundation laying of the N15 billion permanent structure of the National Institute of Power Training of Nigeria (NAPTIN) in Idu, Abuja yesterday, stressed that government was concerned about the need to replace aging electricity workforce and had therefore repositioned NAPTIN to cope with the demands of the post-privatisation era.


Source: http://iykesblog..com/2012/10/the-bidding-conducted-by-bureau-of.html