By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja
The Senate ad-hoc committee on power currently investigating the Privatisation of the power sector, yesterday accused some staff of the Bureau of Public Enterprise of frustrating the reform process of the power sector, following facts which emerged on how they compromised their offices by collecting exotic vehicles.
The committee, which noted with disappointment, the conduct of some board members on the registered power distribution companies, lamented the inability of government agency to carry out its responsibility of ensuring a diligent process.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said this while addressing stakeholders at a public hearing organised by the panel to investigate investments in the power sector between 1999 and 2014, and the unbundling of the PHCN.
He said: “I have the protection of the Senate to say what we have gathered. There are some staff of the Bureau of Public Enterprises that are board members of Generation Companies and Distribution Companies who were given Prado and Land Cruiser Jeeps.”
Speaking in defence of BPE, the Director-General, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said the agency had not and would never be compromised in its responsibility of ensuring a perfect process of privatising the sector for efficient service delivery.
Dikki denied ever collecting gratification in any form in the course of discharging his responsibilities, but asked the senate to direct further investigation on the alleged car gifts to the affected firms.
Meanwhile, a former Minister of Power, Alhaji Bello Suleiman, has urged the federal government to investigate the privatisation of the power sector carried out by the BPE.
He said: “With all due respect, there is an urgent need for independent scrutiny of the privatisation exercise in the power sector. The perception is that it has not been transparent; a committee of experts should do it.
“The experts should examine whether the companies are capable to financially and technically take the country to the level of the 40,000 megawatts. If we do nothing now to ensure that they are the right persons, at the end of the day we may fail.
“The whole idea of the privatisation is that investors would bring money to the sector, but in the last 15 years government has been spending billions on the power sector.”