ABUJA- AS the senate probes into the management
of funds appropriated to the power sector from the
Olusegun Obasanjo civilian administration to date,
there were revelations weekend of alleged diverting
of the sum of N3.5bn meant for the payment of
participants of the scheme by the Permanent
Secretary of Ministry of Power, Dr. Godknows Igali.
In a petition submitted to the chairman of Senate
Adhoc Committee on Power, Senator Abubakar Kyari
( APC Borno North), Beneficiaries of the National
Power Sector Apprenticeship Scheme, NAPSAS
alleged that the Ministry recruited 7200 youths for
the apprenticeship scheme which was expected to
last for six months but stopped abruptly.
In the petiton, the group noted that each participant
of the scheme was expected to be paid N20,000
monthly stipend for six months after which they may
be absorbed into the power sector but that was not
to be as at the moment, due to failure of the
permanent secretary to implement the programme
to the fullest even after N3.5 billion has been
budgeted for it since last year.
It would be recalled that Senate President Bukola
Saraki had last month announced a 13-man ad-hoc
Committee to carry out a holistic investigation into
the management of funds appropriated to the power
sector from the Olusegun Obasanjo civilian
administration to date.
Senator Saraki had urged members of the committee
to consider their reputation and integrity and come
up with a report that would be acceptable to
Nigerians. He lamented that a lot of money had been
spent on the sector with no results, while Nigeria is
still faced with the challenge of power supply.
The committee which has Senator Abubakar Kyari,
APC, Borno North, as chairman, was also saddled with
the responsibility of looking into irregularities in the
unbundling of the Power Holding Company of
Nigeria, PHCN and to inadvertently probe how the
Obasanjo, Umaru Yar‘adua and Jonathan
administrations managed funds allocated to the
sector.
The committee headed by Senator Abubakar Kyari,
(Borno North) was charged with the task of looking
into the entire power value chain including
generation, transmission and distribution with a view
to identifying what the problems in the sector are.
The Permanent Secretary, Dr. Igali had appeared
before the Committee last week Tuesday where he
revealed that a total of N2.74 trillion has been
invested in the country’s power sector from 1999 to
date.
According to the aggrieved apprentices of the
scheme, what actually made them to protest and
expose the alleged scam being allegedly perpetrated
through the scheme by the power ministry was
recent false claim made by the permanent secretary
that a total of 600 apprentices among them, have
been formally absorbed into the power sector after
their training, adding that Igali claimed in the media
that 600 NAPSAS had been recruited after
completion of thier training and offered employment
across the eleven electricity Distribution Companies
otherwise known as DISCOS.
NAPSAS however challenged Ambassador Igali to
publish names and addresses of those recruited by
the DISCOs after their trainings.
The petition by the group most likely would be
treated by the Senate Ad Committee on Power
during its public hearing on the sector soonest.
Part of the petition by NAPAS read : “NAPAS is
capacity building Program that was flagged off by the
Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of
Power, for various categories of unemployed Nigeria
youths, in November 2014 with the overall purpose
of bridging the skilled manpower gaps presently
experienced in the power sector.
“In the Program guideline, it was stipulated that the
total number of participants will be 7400 from across
the federation, with 200 participants each, to be
drawn from the 36 states and the FCT.
“It was also stipulated that the programme is to last
for six months with intensive hands-on training and
each participant would be paid a monthly stipend of
N20, 000 at commencement by Federal Government
through Ministry of Power/NAPSA and probably, be
absorbed into the power sector at the end of the six
months training period.
The Training was also scheduled to be carried out by
the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria
(NAPTIN).
“Consequently, the Federal Government flagged off
the commencement of this Programme at the
Presidential Villa on November 6, 2014 witnessed by
some few selected number of Participants (Trainees)
numbering up to 25 with open declaration by
President Jonathan that a total of N3.5 billion had
been earmarked for it , mostly for payment of
monthly N20, 000 stipends to participants for six
months training.
“The Training was supposed to be continued
immediately but suffered some delay, for reasons no
one cared to inform us, the trainees about. until
Monday December 15, 2014 when we were invited
for the induction exercise at Bolingo Hotels, Central
Business District Abuja by 10:00am during which
credential of the entire trainees were screened and
final successful participants selected .
“On the 2nd February 2015, the trainees were
mobilized for the first phase of the training, across
the states and FCT for 10 days (2-13th
feb.,2015),after we had earlier registered through
NAPTIN website.
”To our disappointment, the trainees were not paid
after that first phase, even when the payment were
made, it was only some of the trainees in Abuja that
were paid 18,000Naira only as against 20,000Naira
budgeted for each trainee.
“We add here that after our training in February,
there were some adjustments to the effect that
some trainees with qualification less than first
degree, were actually deployed into the field for
their fieldwork experience, while those with degrees
were redistributed to some other areas like
metering, solar, billing etc as against what they had
previously made as their choices, and that brought
about the second theoretical training between May
and June 2015.
“On March 2, 2015, NAPTIN’s management sent out
text messages to us requesting from us the Trainees
to reply with our Full Name, Phone numbers,
Passport photograph and signature between March 2,
2015 and March 3, 2015 and send to a provided
link@napsastraining@naptin.org.ng” to enable them
process our Identity Card for field Posting.
“We all responded as requested but never heard
anything relating to Identity card, neither were we
given any form of identity till date. We kept waiting
to hear from NAPSAS/ NAPTIN for what and when
next while we were sitting at home.
“On 22nd March 2015 we received another text
message from NAPTIN management prompting us to
report on Monday April 13, 2015 at the various
selected designation nationwide for a 16 weeks
hands-on skills training on both Solar Installation and
Maintenance as well as Metering depending on the
Field of Study and Qualification of the Trainees which
we responded to , but also ended abruptly after two
weeks without any cogent reasons given or payments made".




www.vanguardngr.com/2015/09/senate-power-probe-perm-sec-in-n3-5bn-scam/

Cc: Seun, Lalasticlala, Tonyebarcanista, Omenka, Beremix, Passingshot, egift, Truckpusher, Phockphockman, Firefire, Mogidi, Michaelsokoto, Chukwudi44, anonimi, Keneking

ewo

And these are Buhari's Permanent secretaries!

Just whistling by