By Aaron Ossai and Disun Amosun
House of Representatives Committee on Finance has queried payment of a whooping sum of $300 million to Azura energy monthly by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN for the supply of 450 Mega Watts of electricity to the national grid.
The House was particularly worried that the amount is paid to Azura whether it meets up with the supply of the 450 Mega Watts of electricity or not.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. James Faleke at this juncture directed the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN to go back, assemble all documents that will assist the Committee in its investigation and report back on the next adjourned date.
He also summoned the Managing Director of TCN and the Director of Finance to appear before the Committee.
Earlier, members of the Committee had kicked against what they saw as attempts by the officials in f the Transmission Company of Nigeria TCN to pull the wool over their faces by comming up with presentations full of electrical engineering jargons meant to confuse rather than enlighten them at the resumed investigative hearing on the proposed sale of the Nigeria Independent Power Projects NIPP by the Bureau of Public Procurement BPP.
The investigation, according to the committee chairman Rep James Faleke will also address the alleged breaches of agreements as well as the perennial power failure in the sector.
TCN’s General Manager Engr. Victor Adewunmi who represented the company’s MD had revealed that prior to 2018 when Nigeria started paying for energy evacuated and uploaded into t!.he national grid, the country did not sign any payment contract with power marketers.
He explained that the one year period between 2017 when the TCN commenced operation and 2018 when payment started was regarded as the gestation period during which the various marketing companies powered their plants from the energy they supplied into the the grid.
In the same breath Engr. Adewunmi said in the energy sector, virtually every purchase is prepaid including power purchase agreements.
In his presentation of AZURA, one of the power marketers’ total energy exported and imported report from 2017 to 2022, TCN’s Marketing Director Engr. Edmond Ejeh gave calculations in Kilohertz and Megahertz per hour and when asked to translate them to Kilohertz, the indices on which the prepaid contractual agreements were signed, members disagreed with his his answers, saying they were more confused than when the session commenced.
