Reps summon Fashola over N22bn expenditure by NBETC

*Accuse minister of flouting Appropriation Act

The House of Representatives Committee on Power on Wednesday summoned the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Raji Fashola over the violation of the 2017 Appropriation Act and the N22billion expended by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBETC) on gas for power generation.

The lawmakers specifically queried the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBETC) over the utilization of N22 billion spent monthly on gas without commensurate result in terms of power
generation.

Worried by this development, the House Committee directed the Minister to appear before it along with the permanent secretary, Mr Louis Edozien and Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) tofurnish the Committee with relevant details relating to the huge funds spent on gas.

The committee led by Rep. Daniel Asuquo (Cross River-PDP) made the call following the absence of the minister at a hearing convened by the committee.
While reacting to the submission of the Minister’s representatives, Rep. Toby Okechukwu (Enugu/PDP) frowned at the indiscriminate injection of funds into the power distribution companies by the Federal Government.

He said: “I don’t know whether the acquisition of the distribution companies is worth more than N701 billion. The total capital of these companies may not be up to N701 billion.

“Yet we are borrowing money to support them and give NBETC,” the lawmaker said.
Similarly,, Rep. Mark Gbillah (Benue/APC), who decried the solvency of NBETC and TCN, argued that the power sector may collapse in the next six to seven years if drastic action was not taken.

“We are trying to pay for the business of certain individuals at that level of gas utilization and power generation. We need to do a forensic study of these gas companies.

“What are they (GENCOS) actually generating? What are we always required to pay them? The generating companies always tell us a humongous figures of what they are generating, and how there’s no
transmission capacity, the losses that they experience.

We need to start from the bottom up as well as from the gas angle. Where are these monies going to? This question goes to the Permanent Secretary.What are the utilization of these funds and the level of generation along the value chain; the operating cycle from GENCOS to TCN and DISCOs?

“Is this the best model in the world? I think NBETC only came to complicate the issues in the centre of the value chain,” he alleged.

The permanent secretary who represented Fashola failed to furnish the committee with detailed information about unauthorized activities carried out by the ministry.
Members of the committee expressed worry over some allegations against the ministry which the minister and the Managing Directors of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company and Transmission Company of
Nigeria were expected to address.

The committee alleged that the ministry had frustrated the implementation of the 2017 Appropriation Act.

Rep. Asuquo however, emphasised that the minister and his permanent secretary have violated the law, adding that the committee had been mandated by the house to protect the interest of citizens.

The lawmakers who frowned at the level of impunity in the power sector, decried the poor management of the sector.

“We are not seeing the will from the Executive because all we see are the people who just want to put us in debt, debt and debt even without passing through due process, because TCN is a can of worms from our
own overview.

“We need to bring out this to the public for them to know the state of our power, we have parleyed too much. How much of this can the distribution companies take,” Asuquo queried.

They therefore, called on the minister to appear before the committee to further give details on the activities of the power ministry as well as the level of the procurement processes involved in each project executed in the power sector.

Henry Omunu, Abuja