Privatisation: SERAP being mischievous, BPE says

By Benjamin Umuteme

Abuja

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has described as ‘curious’ the call by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) on President Muhammadu Buhari to revisit the allegations of corruption made against the privatisation agency.
According to a statement signed by Head, Public Communications, BPE, Chukwumah Nwokoh, the report is the case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
“The attention of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has been drawn to media reports claiming that the has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to revisit the allegations of corruption made against the privatisation agency by the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Investigation of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Activities of the BPE from 1999 to 2011.
“It is curious that SERAP would dredge up a six-year report and attempt to give it the air of infallibility. However, the Bureau would address issues raised in the report again just as it did six years ago when the report was first published. We again reject the conclusions of the report which may have been aimed at tainting the activities of the reform agency,” it said.
It will be recalled that at the appointment of Director General of the Agency, Mr. Alex A. Okoh, on April 13, 2017, he was charged by President Muhammadu Buhari to address the challenges in the privatisation programme.
Accordingly, the Bureau noted, it has resulted in a raft of changes that are already addressing some of the gaps of the past and repositioning the Bureau towards a new vision of the future.
The Bureau explained that it has resulted in a robust corporate governance framework for the Bureau’s representation of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) on the Boards of enterprises in which the FGN retains shares, and a strict code of ethics that guides the rules of engagement with the enterprises.
New pipelines to be funded by transport tariff
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says its new 1000 km gas pipelines that would be funded through a new framework of contractor financing.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru who disclosed this at the recently concluded annual general meeting of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) in Abuja, explained that the cost of the network of new gas pipelines to be constructed would be paid off through agreed transportation tariff.
Between 2010 and 2017, the corporation completed and commissioned about 500 km of new gas pipelines.
Baru said the exercise was part of its aggressive plan to expand Nigeria’s gas pipeline infrastructure, and bring more industries to connect to gas as fuel for their various productions.
He noted that the accelerated expansion of the gas pipeline system took off from the directive of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, to the oil companies in the country to support the government’s power generation effort, and continued until gas-based power generation plants began to contribute up to 70% of Nigeria’s daily power generation.
Providing details of the planned expansion of the country’s gas infrastructure, he said the network would be bolstered with the completion of the 127 km East-West OB3 gas pipeline which would join Oben to Obiafu-Obrikom by 4Q18, and the 363 km looping expansion of Escravos-Lagos Gas Pipeline System expected for delivery by 1Q18.
He said the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) tender evaluation process for 683 km Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline contract, and that of the Qua Iboe Terminal to Obiafu/Obrikom (QIT-Ob/Ob gas pipeline) were ongoing.
“Upon completion, the remaining projects are expected to add over 1000 km to the nation’s gas pipeline network,” said Baru.

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