Fresh facts have emerged on why the Nigeria Customs Service seized 248 containers of equipment imported by the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) for 11 years.

The Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo had during the recent occasion of the flag-off of the release of the containers seized at the ports in Lagos and Onne in Rivers State, promised to launch an investigation to unravel the circumstances that stalled the clearance of the equipment.

“We want to investigate why 248 containers bearing goods that the federal government imported into this country, through the PHCN, were abandoned. We want to investigate and make sure that no such thing ever occurs in the power sector and hopefully in other sectors for that matter,” he said.

THISDAY’s investigation, however, revealed that government bureaucracy at the time the electrical equipment were imported and the unbundling of the PHCN led to the long years of delay of the containers.

Former top officials of the defunct PHCN, who spoke to THISDAY on condition of anonymity at the weekend said apart from the unbundling of PHCN, which raised legal issues on the ownership of the imported containers, there was also bureaucratic bottleneck as the 11 distribution companies unbundled from the PHCN were not given the free hand to operate.

One of the former Chief Executive Officer of one of the distribution companies told THISDAY that before the equipment were imported in 2003, the former PHCN was one indivisible entity.

He further disclosed that when the equipment came into the country, PHCN had been unbundled into 18 legal entities, thereby raising legal issues on the ownership of the equipment.

“The unbundling of PHCN created the confusion that led to the delay of the equipment. The containers were imported by one company, which is the PHCN but when they arrived the country, PHCN had been split into 18 companies. Which of the 18 companies should claim ownership of the containers? Each of the companies was supposed to be autonomous by the law that created them. So, there were ownership issues,” he said.

Another former top executive of PHCN blamed the situation on government’s interference on the operation of the 18 companies, which created serious bureaucratic bottleneck.

“Each of the companies created by the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 were supposed to be autonomous but the government did not give them free hand. If they had been given the free hand, they would have cleared the containers. A situation whereby each of the companies had to go from table to table seeking for every approval could have caused such delay. It was due to bureaucracy at that time,” he said.

A former staff of the PHCN said the delay in getting approvals in the past led to the non-payment of the relevant levies, thereby delaying the containers.

“If the government had paid for duties and levies, the containers would have been cleared. No private company will allow that to happen. That is why I support privatisation. But it was not easy to get approvals at that time,” he said.

The containers were recently released to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which represents the defunct PHCN.

Power projects, which should have been delivered a decade ago were stalled on account of the overstay of the imported containers at the ports for a period ranging from seven to 11 years.

Some of the 10 of these projects include: Abor Mbaise – Mpu – Ideato Substation projects in Imo State; Kano Combusto-Dankata –Hadejiya Transmission Substation; Oba- Nnewi Substations and Lines in Anambra State; Dambata Substation and Omotosho –Epe- Aja lines in Ondo and Lagos States.

Other projects include: ALSCON – Ibom 330KV Lines in Akwa Ibom State; Igangan –Igbora Substation and Ikorodu-Odiganya –Shagamu Transmission Lines in Lagos and Ogun States.

The rest of the projects include Nsukka – Ayangba through Enugu, Benue and Kogi States; as well as the project for the supply of current transformers and capacitor voltage transformers.

Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/why-248-containers-of-phcn-equipment-were-seized-for-11-years/185379/

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