The Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Sule Abdulaziz, in a written presentation made to the House Committee on Power, listed various factors frustrating successful supply of electricity from the Generation Companies to the Distribution Companies.
Among the reasons include low budget and release of funds to finance its capital projects, variation of contract sums by contractors and court cases.
The document listed the frustration of the TCN as: “Right of Way issues with communities, delay in issuance of Import Duty Exemption Certificate, variation claims by contractors due to cost escalation arising from poor funding, legal issues, insecurity, theft and vandalism/destruction of power infrastructure, and effect of COVID-19 (pandemic) which took away more than a quarter of the year.”
In the presentation, the TCN also decried the impact of the Integrated Financial Management Information System, saying, “For some time now we are unable to process payments on IFMIS platform. This is causing a lot of delay.”
Other factors, according to him, are slow pace of release of fund by Accountant General (of the Federation), variation in cost, long process involved in getting the variation approved, approval by the Bureau of Public Procurement, approval by Ministerial Tenders Board and approval by the Federal Executive Council.
Abdulaziz listed the solutions to include an increase in the threshold of the TCN Tenders Board and Ministerial Tender Board.
