Dino Melaye Storms EFCC To Petition Hydro International Nigeria Limited for diversion of Funds, Economic sabotage....

The Founder of Anti Corruption Network,Dist.Sen.Annointed.Otunba Dino Melaye,petitioned Hydro International Nigeria Limited for diversion of Funds, Economic sabotage,Criminal violation and abuse of public procurement Act.

The petition was earlier received by the Director Public Affairs, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr. Osita Nwajah.

In the petition, Senator Melaye stated;

 "In line with the objectives of our organization and our desire to ensure that economic and financial crimes are duly investigated and prosecuted, we hereby present this Petition on several offences and breaches of laws"

He therefore state the details below;

"Manitoba Hydro International Nigeria Ltd, (the Company) was awarded a Management Contract to oversee and superintend the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) asset and liabilities after the privatization and unbundling of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to Generating Companies (GENCOS) and Distribution Companies (DISCOS) by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on the 28th of March, 2012 for a term of three (3) years."

The cost of the Management Contract was first awarded for United States Dollars $30 million and was subsequently renewed for a further one.

 1year at a cost United States Dollars $5.2 million. TCN has over 8000 km of 330kv line and 12,000km of 11kv connecting many substations within Nigeria.

Pursuant to the above stated, our investigations have uncovered several economic and financial crimes committed by Manitoba Hydro International Nigeria Ltd (the “Company”) and also violations of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, maladministration in governance and outright disregard of best practices in TCN by the Company.

Our investigations also observed that following the several maladministration and the economic and financial crimes of the Company, the Federal Ministry of Power caused an investigation and set up a committee to advice the Ministry on the status of the administrative governance and procurement process applied under the management of the Company particularly as it contravenes Sections 4,6 and 16 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.

Some of our findings are listed below:

1.That in 2015 the Company fraudulently diverted funds transferred to the regions for the 2015 trace maintenance.

2.The Company was involved in splitting of contract to avoid the TCN Tenders Board and Ministerial Tenders Board as observed in the case of contract of repairs of telecommunications equipment and power stations: 330 kvsubstations (S1 and S2) which amounts to NGN247,061,796 and NGN248,859,350.00 respectively.

3.The award of contract verbatim at the cost of NGN893,000,000.00 for the repair of telecommunications equipment and remote terminal units associated with PHCN (legacy) power stations and TCN 330kv substations at various locations in favor of a certain company: Telemit International Ltd, though the contract sum was fully paid but there is no evidence that the contract was executed.

4.A failure by the Company to ensure probity, accountability and transparency in the management of TCN, as no audit has been conducted on the accounts of TCN since assumption of management by the Company. This is in contravention of the terms of contract signed between the Company and the Bureau of Public Enterprise and this has no doubt led to many irregularities in the Market Operations Sector.

In the light of the above, we will also like to draw your attention to several other violations / non- compliance with the provisions of the MHI Management Contract.

1.The Management Contract requires the Company to expand the TCN’s wheeling capacity to 6000MW. This critical performance indicator was never realized.

2.TCN’s performance under the Management of Manitoba Hydro International has fallen ".so low that the Company inherited a wheeling capacity of 4000MW and as of today the said capacity is below 1500MW which led to the national system collapse in March, 2016.

3.The Company has completely failed to achieve the target after four (4) years in spite of Federal Government of Nigeria’s financial commitments and other form of support for instance, the Eurobond, World Bank, AFDB, JICA and so on.

4.The contract also provides for technical transfer and capacity building in line with local content policy of which the Company has failed to deliver on.

5.The Company was required to develop a Management Plan for the 4th year of their contract of which it also failed to deliver on.

We therefore implore you Sir that pursuant to Section 5 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, to cause an investigation into the activities of Manitoba Hydro International Nigeria Ltdand prosecute all offences as elicited above with particular attention to market fund and operations and the millions of dollars spent without evidence of projects executed.

We also urge that following your investigations, that you should advice the Federal Government to debar the Company for the several contraventions of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 whilst acting as Managers of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

God Bless Melaye.

God Bless Anti Corruption Network.

In An Unjust Society,Silence is a Crime.