Power tussle among officials has compounded the crisis rocking the N3.85 billion management contract given to Canadian company Manitoba to run the electricity Transmission Company of Nigeria, Daily Trust has learnt.
The Federal Government handed over TCN to Manitoba Hydro International in a $24 million contract that is expected to run for three years, aimed at improving the electricity transmission system.
TCN is one of the successor companies of the unbundled Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and Manitoba is to take over its functions of a transmission services provider, system operator and market operator.
Due to the controversy that heralded the process, the contract could not take off until March when the Schedule of Delegated Authority (SODA), a document which states the general and specific terms and conditions of the contract, was released to Manitoba.
But even after that, the crisis persisted as some of the contract conditions were ignored by both the Ministry of Power and Manitoba, sources told Daily Trust.
In one of such infractions, Manitoba assumed sole control of TCN bank accounts and day-to-day running of the company but this has not translated into better electricity transmission so far. The country experienced nine system collapses in the last six months, further worsening electricity supply.
Daily Trust learnt that part of the crisis bedevilling the contract is that the TCN board chairman Hamman Tukur and Power Minister Chinedu Nebo have not been operating on the same page. Tukur prefers to report directly to President Jonathan while the minister insists on exercising control over the board.
There is also confusion as to the composition of the board. Secretary to the Government of the Federation Anyim Pius Anyim on December 20, 2012 named one set of nine board members while Nebo on March 12, 2013 inaugurated a separate set of seven people into the board.
Both boards are chaired by Tukur, but the Nebo-appointed set included Manitoba CEO and excluded “essential” members such as the representatives of the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN), power generating companies and distributing companies.
“This development brought about confusion and the TCN board raised objections during a meeting with President Jonathan on the inclusion of Manitoba into the board. A contractor can’t be part of the board that supervises his work,” a source in TCN told Daily Trust.
The source said the board also questioned Nebo’s directives that the Manitoba team “is to take control of TCN which includes major functions such as market operator and system operator, etc.”
“The implication of this is that as market operator, Manitoba - a private limited liability company - will have all government revenues from the power sector routed through it, thereby undermining national security,” the source said. Daily Trust gathered that when all these issues were raised with President Jonathan, he convened a stakeholders’ meeting to discuss the issues.
“The president agreed to reconstitute the TCN board and expand its membership to accommodate stakeholders like representatives from Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Council for the Regulation of Engineers in Nigeria (COREN), among other critical stakeholders,” the source said.
But more than two months after, the board is yet to be reconstituted “because some elements in the Ministry of Power and the Presidency are not comfortable with Hamman Tukur, because they know him as someone who would insist on doing the right thing,” the source said.
“To be fair to President Jonathan, he actually wanted Hamman Tukur to sanitise the system, but this goes contrary to the wishes of some powerful people close to the president who are benefitting from the status quo. That is why the board has never taken up.”
Meanwhile, Manitoba, according to inside sources, has been running the affairs of the TCN without the supervision of the board.
Though the contract document says all payments to Manitoba should be approved by the board, official documents seen by Daily Trust show that Manitoba has so far received about 49 per cent of the contract sum without the board’s approval.
But in its reaction, the Ministry of Power said that there is only one board. Nebo’s spokeswoman Kande Daniel said in a text message: “Information available to me indicates that there’s only one TCN Supervisory Board, as approved by President Goodluck Jonathan.”
“Manitoba cannot be said to be ‘running affairs’ in that sense. The management contract was signed only last year. They were only given the Schedule of Delegated Authority (SODA),” she added.
Power over funds
Documents seen by Daily Trust show that Nebo has instructed the handing over of TCN accounts to four officials of Manitoba even though contract documents specify that TCN accounts signatories shall comprise two Manitoba and two Nigerian counterparts.
In a letter dated 26 March, 2013, the minister asked TCN managing director “to ensure change of signatories to all the accounts of the TCN. Furthermore, the formal handover of all financial matters to the management contractor for effective operations should also be effected.”
Subsequently, a change of mandate was sent to the Accountant General of the Federation, Zenith Bank, Union Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria with the names of only four Manitoba staff as the new signatories.
When contacted, Managing Director of TCN/Manitoba Hydro International in Nigeria, Mr. Don Priestman, said although the schedule of delegated authority has been given to Manitoba, it was still not enough as control of key TCN bank accounts was yet to be yielded to the company.
“We do not have control of the market fund and this is not ideal. The contract was designed to take over management control of TCN not certain parts. It didn’t include something and exclude something,” he told Daily Trust.
“Up till now, the entire fund made available to TCN is not enough. We have a grid which is primarily radio. It will take time to fix it but we have a plan; more revenue and capital needed to change that. The government is working very hard to get the fund for that. Some fund expected from China, World Bank, Africa Development Bank, government etc.”
Asked to explain why a huge amount of the contract sum has so far been paid, he said, “We are not investing in TCN. We are just to provide expertise, manage and introduce necessary reforms. There are other aspects that also require attention.”
He said Manitoba brought in a team of 32 experts from Canada, and they travelled round the entire grid network, observing and studying the problem and filing reports.
“The day we take over does not mean a miracle that the system becomes healthy. It requires a lot of investments, it requires a lot of looping, parallel lines, and it requires maintenance, training and skills transfer. It requires new systems, computers, and expenditures of huge amount of money. That doesn’t happen overnight,” Priestman said.

http://dailytrust.info/index.php/top-stories/3052-e-x-c-l-u-s-i-v-e-crisis-rocks-n3-85bn-manitoba-power-deal

Failure runs in the genes of these men!