Contractors May Refund Government's Money with Interest

Contractors who handled the controversial power plants initiated by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo's but failed to perform satisfactorily may be forced to refund the money and pay interest on them.

This is among punitive measures the House of Representatives Committee on Power and Steel probing the alleged $16 billion spent on the energy sector between 1999 and 2007 may recommend to the Federal Government.

Aside the representatives' probe, the Federal Government has intensified its efforts to bail out the energy sector from its near moribund state.

Its current focus is on the controversial National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP), where a global firm hired by the government to assess seven of the power plants and recommend ways to make functional has submitted its report.

After inspecting the Papalanto Power Plant in Ogun State yesterday, the panel's chairman, Mr. Godwin Ndudi Elumelu, said the contractors who performed poorly would be made to refund the money and pay interest on them.

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After many problems, much payment, and little results, the power sector of Nigeria did not do very well last year. Hopefully, the contracters will follow through and refund money, which might mitigate some of the damage and lack of progress in the power sector.

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How Obasanjo Spent $13bn on Power

Clearer picture of how the Obasanjo administration spent $13 billion on the power sector emerged yesterday with the Minister of State for Energy (Power), Mrs. Fatima Ibrahim, giving a breakdown of the expenditure over a period of eight years.

And following the failure of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) to materialise, the 36 states and the 774 councils are now demanding the refund of the $3.2 billion they contributed for its implementation, according to Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State.

She said the sum of N235 billion; $6.5 billion and 330 million Euro were used to finance the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP).

She said another $4.6 billion sourced from the international creditors and $1.6 billion from Joint Venture Calls (JVCs) were also used to finance the sector during the period.

Ibrahim said although there was no evidence of misappropriation of the funds, some contracts that were paid for were abandoned by the contractors after payment.

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Following up on this story, the government has finally responded to the question of the people and the questions of the state government. The money was reportedly all allocated to certain projects, but that does not rule out the possibility of massive corruption or faulty allocation. The government's explanation was that many contrators who were hired for the job did not complete their tasks. This money that was not returned upon will be sought out from the contractors, and hopefully the government can come closer to their ambitious power supply goals.

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President Raises Panel to Check Energy Crisis

PRESIDENT Umaru Musa Yar'Adua yesterday constituted an 11-member committee to give practical effect to his administration's pledge to end the country's
long-running energy crisis within the shortest possible time. He charged the committee to deliver to the country a total additional 6,000 megawatts generation, transmission and distribution capacity within the next 18 months.

The committee was also mandated to add to the national grid an extra 11,000 megawatts of power generation capacity by 2011.

This would be done through diverse sources while the 6,000 additional megawatts target would be met through the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).

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This article addresses President Umaru Yar'Adua's recent creation of an eleven person committee who is charged with helping the President and his administration in their desire to relieve the energy crisis in Nigeria. Yar'Adua believes the there must be a partnership between the government and the private sector that is attempting to ease the energy crisis. The committee is aimed at analyzing the infrastructure of the power sector, the funding of the new initiatives, and providing a reliable investor for the power sector, among other priorities. This decision shows the goals that Yar'Adua's administration to make Nigeria the best it can be by making each individual aspect of the government and the country as a whole better.

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