The House of Representatives said it is set to Probe a Canadian power company, Manitoba Hydro International (TCN) over allegation of fraud and lack of due process in the payment of 94.4 million dollars in the contract awarded to it.
The House Adhoc committee said its has enough evidence to prove that Manitoba received the sum of 23.4 per annum for four years in the said transaction.
The chairman of the Ad-Hoc committee on fraudulent and non-transparent sale of power assets by the Bureau of public enterprises (BPE), Ahmed Idris made the disclosure while briefing newsmen in Abuja.
The Manitoba Hydro International was suppose to be managing the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for four years after which it was terminated due to non performance, without any
recourse.
According to Idris, the House was aware that the exercise was aimed at improving efficiency, ending subsidies to PHCN and channeling the gains to other critical sector of social welfare but concerned that all gains were lost through alleged corruption, manipulation of rules and disregard to extant laws and lack of transparency in the exercise.
"The House was also concerned that the lofty goals of privatization was marred by the sale of the sector to preferred bidders that could not pay the bid value on the sale, instead the BPE encouraged the deferment of payment and restructuring of payment terms in contravention of bidding rules to
the disadvantages of other bidders.
"Consequently, the committee took some steps and also held several meetings, wrote to stakeholders to request for memoranda, engaged consultants and conducted several researches on the sale of power assets in the country, embarked on a week long retreat to examine the details of the sale.
"Having waited for this long, the committee is saddled with discharging its assignment without fear or favour. In the discharge of this, we shall convene a public hearing commencing on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 where the general public and stakeholders in the power sector will gather to provide the
necessary information and we would relent until we get to the root of thematter", the lawmaker submitted.
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