Some firms that emerged as leaders in the race to acquire controlling stakes in the electricity distribution companies during the bid opening eventually lost out at the final hurdle because they failed to meet the stringent requirements put in place by privatisation agencies.
The control mechanisms were put in place by the National Council on Privatisation, Bureau of Public Enterprises and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The Chairman, Technical Committee, NCP, Mr. Atedo Peterside, who disclosed this in an exclusive telephone interview with our correspondent on Tuesday, said the bids for the Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s successor generation and distribution companies were subjected to three levels of control.
According to him, for every level, there was more than one check.
“This is targeted at ensuring that the most qualified firm emerged winner,” he told our correspondent.
He said a sub-committee on power and a NERC committee re-examined the process at every level.
“It was the final result that got to the NCP,” he added.
Peterside likened the process to being cross-examined by an external examiner, saying it did not matter who was found wanting at a point, but the final result was what mattered for the firms that participated in the bid process.
When asked why the preferred bidders were given six months to pay for the acquisition of the power companies, he said, “Payment terms were fixed in 2010 and nobody complained.
“After paying 25 per cent, additional six months will ensure that any credible bidder can organise financing for the balance of 75 per cent. Any money that you cannot raise in six months, you probably cannot raise in six or 60 years.”
Responding to the controversy that Interstate Consortium ought not to have won the bid for the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company because it had allegedly failed in two areas of the bid, Peterside said the firm and others were subjected to the same control mechanisms, which resulted in Interstate losing out on the Abuja Disco where it was the leading bidder during the bid opening.
The Chairman, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, also corroborated the NCP Technical Committee chairman, saying, “The firm (Interstate) failed the initial test because there was a problem of decimal point in its figures.
“This was corrected, and it passed. Its new figures were consistent with the business plan and I reviewed it myself through my staff and confirmed that it deserves to be the preferred bidder for Enugu Disco.”
In the result of the bidding process announced on Monday after the meeting of the NCP, the firm being backed by a former Head of State, Gen, Abdusalami Abubakar, Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Limited, emerged the preferred bidder for the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company.
The company had led other bidders for the Eko, Ikeja and Ibadan distribution companies, considered to be the biggest and most commercially viable in the country, when the bids were earlier opened on October 16, 2012.
However, the NCP, in approving the outcome of the financial bid opening for the PHCN successor companies, had named Integrated Energy as the winner for the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, with NEDC/KEPCO approved as the reserve bidder.
Significantly, the consortium being backed by the Ekiti, Delta, Edo and Ondo state governments to acquire 60 per cent stake in the Benin Distribution Company, Southern Electricity Distribution Company, was disqualified for submitting two different bids in violation of the rules.
Instead, the company went to Vigeo Power Consortium.
One of the rules guiding the privatisation process states that no company can be allowed to win more than two bids.
Source: Punch
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