PHCN power station
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The
contract between the Federal Government and a Canadian firm, Manitoba,
for the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria may go awry
following the stripping of Manitoba of powers to control human resource
and finance at the company.
Investigation by our correspondent
showed that the Canadian firm, which in July sealed a N3.72bn deal to
manage TCN, one of the successor companies carved out of the Power
Holding Company of Nigeria, had lost its powers to manage the
organisation at the insistence of PHCN workers.
With this development, the PHCN workers
are to control both the human and financial resources at the company,
while Manitoba employees seconded to Nigeria will be responsible for the
technical expansion of the nation’s power grid.
While 17 other PHCN successor companies
were slated for either privatisation or concession in the ongoing power
sector reform programme of President Goodluck Jonathan, the Federal
Government retained 100 per cent ownership in TCN.
However, in order to ensure effective
management as well as expansion of the national grid, TCN was slated for
management contract for an initial period of three years.
The management contractor was expected
not only to expand the grid within the period of the contact, but also
to ensure that Nigerian workers were effectively trained to fill the
skill gap that had been identified.
However, the PHCN workers had
consistently opposed the planned takeover of the human resource and
market operator functions of TCN by the Canadian firm, arguing that it
would render them redundant.
They feared that the Canadian firm could
also embark on cutting down the staff strength of the organisation as
well as clip the wings of the workers in determining who gets what.
Given the opposition of the workers, the
Federal Government under the former Minister of Power, Prof. Bart
Nnaji, used security agents, including police and army officers to
ensure that Manitoba took charge on July 30.
However, it was learnt that following
the exit of Nnaji, the workers resumed their opposition against Manitoba
until the Federal Government succumbed to their pressure and stripped
Manitoba of the human resource and market operation functions.
The workers had perceived Nnaji as a
hardliner, who was not ready to shift position in the pursuit of the
power sector reform, and employed every strategy to frustrate him.
Our correspondent learnt that without
the market operation and human resource functions, the management
contract was empty and it would be difficult to hold Manitoba
responsible if the contract failed.
The Chief Executive Officer sent to TCN
by Manitoba, Mr. Don Priestman, had on Friday, said two months into the
contract, the Federal Government had yet to issue the Canadian firm the
Delegated Authority it required to work.
The Executive Chairman, Nigerian
Electricity Regulatory Commission, Dr. Sam Amadi, told our correspondent
in a telephone interview that he was aware of the fight by the workers
to strip Manitoba of the principal functions.
“I don’t know whether anybody has
removed the functions or not, but certainly not from NERC. The workers
were pressing for this. The contract said Manitoba is in charge,” Amadi
said.
The President, National Union of
Electricity Employees, Federal Capital Territory Chapter, Mr. Wisdom
Nwachukwu, also told our correspondent on the telephone that the workers
pressed for Manitoba to be stripped of the principal functions.
He said, “Initially, they said that
their contract was only technical. We said they should show us a copy of
the contract and they did not. It was later that we found that their
contract included market operations and administration.
“We argued that if those functions were
removed from us, nothing would remain of PHCN. We pressed for the
revision of the contract. I don’t know what the situation is now because
I had been sick and hospitalised.”
The spokesman for Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Chukwuma Nwokoh, did not pick calls made to his mobile phone.
The Canadian firm, which signed the
management contract deal with BPE on July 23, 2012, has already been
paid a significant part of its management fee. It has also sent an
eight-man team to the country for the turnaround of TCN, according to
the terms of the contract.
Within the three-year period of the deal, Nigerian workers are expected to understudy the operations of the Canadian firm.
source: punchng
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