Don't Miss


Home   >   Business   >   Industries   >   Energy   >   Consortium Backed by Governors Broke Power Privatization Rules

Consortium Backed by Governors Broke Power Privatization Rules

By on October 23, 2012

National Council of Privatization

The consortium called Southern Electricity Distribution Company which was backed by the governors of Delta, Edo,  and Ekiti states has been accused of breaching the privatization rules in its bid for the Benin Electricity Distribution Company.

Chairman of the Technical Committee of the National Council of Privatization, Mr. Atedo Peterside, disclosed at a press conference in Monday that the consortium submitted more than one bid signed by Mr. Matthew Edevbie which is in clear contravention of the rules governing the process.

Peterside explained, “The first bid was dubbed the ‘primary’ bid, while the other was dubbed an ‘alternate’ bid. This was a clear contravention of the RFP. We did not make a big issue of this on live TV because both the primary and the alternate bids fell below the bid submitted by Vigeo, and so, neither bids would alter Southern Consortium’s ranking on the large screen.

“Instead, this matter was brought to the attention of the Technical Committee of NCP, which considered the breach and made recommendations to the NCP. Therefore, on the allegation that the bid process was not transparent, I wholeheartedly affirm that the entire transaction followed due process and was governed by the provisions of the RFP.”

He refuted the allegations of the governors and gave some insight into the rationale behind their attack on the integrity of the process.

He said, “Obviously, they (governors) presumed the latter (Vigeo) to be the likely winner based on the outcome of the televised commercial bid opening ceremony, which took place in Abuja on Tuesday, October 16, 2012, which I presided over.

“It is pertinent to mention here that the NCP has not even declared a result yet, and so, no consortium has been announced as being the preferred bidder for any of the 11 Discos in Nigeria. At the end of the commercial bid opening ceremony, I explained that we still had to subject all the bids to a material consistency/feasibility test before making recommendations to the NCP.

“So, the NCP has the right to cancel the bid results.”