President Jonathan
budgets billions for Bayelsa project long completed, and fully paid for in
2006.
President Goodluck Jonathan is
asking the National Assembly to appropriate about N1.8 billion this year to
help connect his home state of Bayelsa, to the national electricity grid, but
this request suggests that federal officials only want to pocket the money.
PREMIUM TIMES investigations
into the proposed project reveal that President Jonathan is asking money for
projects that have been completed seven years ago, and that were all fully paid
for in 2006 by the same federal government.
Mr. Jonathan was governor of the
state at the time.
In the 2014 Federal budget
recently presented by the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to the
National Assembly for consideration and approval, the government lists as
priority, the need to connect the state to the national electricity
transmission network, but this shocking blunder is drawing attention to the
absence of project monitoring and evaluation principles in policy making under
the current administration, and the shabbiness that attends to budget
preparation.
When contacted, the Special
Adviser to the President on Power, Beks Dagogo-Jack, could not explain how the
provision found its way into the budget, but claimed the issue might involve
some complicated technical explanations only the bureaucrats at the Federal
Ministry of Power could make.
PREMIUM TIMES investigations
reveal that such provisions, that many federal crime investigators are familiar
with, are some of the several fraudulent financial requests smuggled into
budgets to steal public funds.
The Special Adviser to Bayelsa
State governor on Power, Olice Kemenanabo, on Tuesday, confirmed to PREMIUM
TIMES that Bayelsa State was indeed linked to the national grid more than eight
years ago.
The Director General, Budget
Office of the Federation, Bright Okogwu, demanded a text message enquiry when
contacted Thursday. He did not respond to the enquiry as at the time of
publishing this report on Saturday.
However, the Senior Special
Adviser to the President on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, insisted Friday night
the N1.8billion request is not fraudulent.
“It is true contract connecting
Yenagoa to the national grid was awarded in 2006,” Mr. Okupe said in response
to a PREMIUM TIMES enquiry. “It is a 2x40MVA station connecting only Yenagoa.
That voltage is far too small to cater for the needs of the state.
“The present contract is to
further upgrade what is on ground and extend services to other parts of the
state. It will be wrong and ignorant to say the 2014 provision is fake!”
Yet officials at the Federal
Ministry of Power, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES but requested anonymity for fear
of official reprisal, insisted that there is no official documentation for the
project, and that it is merely a “graft allocation.”
The officials said they were
“stunned and amused at the claim from the presidency which is obviously an
afterthought.”
“It is not true that the Bayelsa
transmission line needs an upgrade. If it’s an upgrade, why didn’t they say so
in the budget? Why was it presented as a totally new project?” the official
queried.
The project, titled, “Connection
of Bayelsa to national grid”, under the allocation of the Federal Ministry of
Energy (power), was described as a new project with reference number
MOP1001637.
The budget did not say the
requested N1.8billion was needed for an upgrade of an existing facility.
Power ministry officials point
to the existence of a 132kv transmission line from Owerri, in Imo State,
linking Ahoada, in Rivers State, and Yenagoa, in Bayelsa State, which was
constructed by Pivot Engineering Nigeria Limited, insisting that the current
fresh provision in the budget amounted to “linking the state to the national grid
for the second time, evidence that the money goes into someone’s pocket.”
Documents from the Bayelsa State
Investment Promotion Council and the power ministry offer the historical
background to power development in the state, dating it back to 1988 prior to
the creation of the State in October 1, 2006.
Then, the area relied on only
one transmission line, which was not upgraded by successive administrations.
This spurred the Federal
Ministry of Power and Steel, in conjunction with the then National Electric
Power Authority, NEPA, to award a $56 million, [N3.2billion] contract to Energo
Nigeria Limited in 1999 for the construction of a single phase
Owerri-Ahoada-Yenagoa 132 kv transmission line to link Owerri to Yenagoa.
However, in November 2000, the
scope of the job was reviewed to accommodate the Yenogoa-Imiringi and
Ahoada-Abonnema 33KV double circuit lines, with the associated substations at
Ahoada and Yenagoa.
The contract was renegotiated
before it was re-awarded for $76million to Pivot Engineering Nigeria Limited, a
subsidiary of Honeywell Group, owned by Oba Otudeko, a chieftain of the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and one of the notable political allies of the
President.
Subsequent reviews raised the
contract sum to about N6.3 billion initially, and later N11 billion in 2005.
Despite the allocation of about
N1.115 billion in the 2005 budget to facilitate the completion of the project,
the contractor failed to meet the December 2005 completion deadline.
Pivot finally completed the job
and successfully connected Bayelsa State to the national grid in 2006.
Like Bayelsa, like Gurara,
others
As in the Bayelsa case, the 2014
budget also indicates that officials of the federal government have also
fraudulently budgeted about N700 million to purportedly link Gurara, in Kaduna
State, to the national grid this year.
PREMIUM TIMES investigations,
however, show that Gurara’s connection to the national grid has remained one of
the constant features in successive federal budget proposals since 2011
About N918 million was provided
for the project in 2011; N556.74 million in 2012, and N1.5 billion in 2013.
Officials at the power ministry
say this is a loud indictment of the federal budget making process under the
Jonathan administration where project monitoring and evaluation doesn’t appear
to be a factor for policy development.
It is just another drain pipe
into some pockets, officials at the power ministry said in Abuja.
Other controversial provisions,
which had featured in successive budgets since 2010, include those for the 10MW
Katsina Wind Farm, which took N3.15billion in 2010; N510million in 2011;
N800million in 2012; N250million in 2013, and N1billion in 2014.
Similarly, the construction of
the 215 Kaduna low pour fuel oil, LPFO/gas-fired power plant, which was
allocated about N3.7billion in the 2014 budget, gulped N7.65billion in 2011;
N3.7billion in 2012, and N2.744billion in 2013.
Feasibility studies for
coal-fired power plants in Enugu and Gombe States, which got allocation of
about N1.7billion in the 2014 budget, took about N2.04billion in 2011;
N2.223billion in 2012, and N1.7billion in 2013.
Apart from the N461million set
aside for some renewable energy projects, these projects, which were initiated
to help provide alternative sources of power towards meeting government-set
electricity generation target of 10,000MW, have incidentally turned out to be
pipe-drains for corrupt public officials.
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