Fresh facts on the just concluded bid for the 11 PHCN Electricity
Distribution Companies (DISCOs) have exposed gross irregularities that
characterised the exercise with Vice President Namadi Sambo and other members of
the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) showing their hands in who got
what.
The Nation can authoritatively report that the bid for the Eko DISCO, for
instance, was highly flawed and due process wantonly breached.
Whereas requirements set by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC) for participation in the bid specified that bidders must have a net worth
of not less than $100million, a 28 page document entitled: ‘Report on the
Assessment to Determine “fit and proper” Persons to Operate in the Nigerian
Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) dated October 9, 2012’, obtained exclusively
by The Nation showed that many of the bidding companies did not meet this
particular requirement.
Bidders in this category are: NPD Consortium, West Power & Gas Ltd, ENL
Consortium Ltd, Electric Utilities Ltd for Eko DISCO; ENL Consortium Ltd,
Skipper Nigeria Ltd, ICOMM Energy Ltd and Electric Utilities Ltd for Ibadan
DISCO.
Other firms failed the technical evaluation test. These are SEO
International, West Power & Gas Ltd and Daniel Power Plant Company Nigeria
Ltd for Ikeja DISCO; Skipper Nigeria Ltd, NAHCO Power Consortium, Interstate
Electrics Ltd, ENL Consortium Ltd for Abuja DISCO; SNECOU Group of Companies
Ltd, VIVADIS Power Ltd (ORTECH Consortium) for Yola DISCO; Profile Energy
Consortium Ltd for Kano DISCO; NAHCO Energy Power Ltd, Skipper Nigeria Ltd for
Kaduna DISCO; Utility Integrated Management Services Ltd for Port Harcourt
DISCO; Masters Energy Oil & Gas Ltd for Jos DISCO and Southern Electricity
Distribution Company, Cable & Rods Company Nigeria Ltd, Copper Belt
Consortium, Duncan Freeman Company/Draytom Energy Ltd for Benin DISCO
respectively.
Investigation by The Nation revealed that West Power & Gas, which had
been disqualified as “unfit and improper” by the 20-man committee set by the
NERC at the first stage for having insufficient net worth was later given the
opportunity to shore up its net worth through a foreign bank to enable it make
up its deficit of $50 million. Its initial net worth valued at $50 million fell
short of the requisite $100 million.
Highly placed sources confided in The Nation that West Power & Gas,
reportedly owned by Charles Mommoh, is close to the corridors of power.
Sources further disclosed that Mr. Atedo Peterside, who is Chairman of
National Council on Privatisation (NCP) Technical Committee, may have been
overruled by the Vice President in the bid for Eko DISCO.
Of the nine proposals for Eko DISCO, West Power & Gas was one of the four
firms which failed the technical evaluation on account of insufficient net
worth, but it was allegedly allowed to illegally shore up its net worth and
continue as a participant in the exercise while others in a situation similar to
its own were left out.
The guidelines for the process said: “…bidders are only allowed to be
declared the preferred bidder for a maximum of two distribution companies, and
that the winners of Eko and Ikeja must be different bidders. In the event that a
bidder is placed as the preferred bidder for more than two distribution
companies or for both Eko and Ikeja, bidders will be assigned preferred
companies based on their Order of Preference which is to be submitted with their
commercial proposal as the Request for Proposal.”
This means that the stated Order of Preference submitted along with bids
cannot be altered by companies midway into the exercise. Integrated Energy
Distribution & Marketing Ltd, which had earlier cited Yola and Ibadan in its
Order of Preference lost out in the bid for Eko and Ikeja DISCOs.
Thus, with Integrated Energy Distribution & Marketing Ltd, which
naturally came first in the bid for Eko DISCO out of the way due to Order of
Preference rule, the preferred bidder that came second, KEPCO/NEDC Consortium,
ought to have won the bid for Eko DISCO but was illegally switched to Ikeja
DISCO, for which it never expressed preference, thus paving the way for West
Power & Gas Consortium, which came a distant third, to secure control of Eko
DISCO.
