Ndubuisi Orji,, Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Power has expressed concern over the plethora of abandoned projects by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), amounting to about N165billion.
The committee stated that the government pact with German firm, Siemens, which is intended to improve power supply in the country, may not yield the desired results, unless the projects were completed.
Its chairman, Aliyu Magaji, who spoke when the TCN appeared before the committee for the defence of its 2021 budget proposals, noted that documents at the disposal of lawmakers indicated that the agency currently had about 158 major capital projects awarded from 2001 to date.
According to him, a breakdown of the projects revealed that 39 , including 28 substations and 11 transmission lines, has been completed and commissioned without outstanding payments to contractors, while 119 projects, which were ongoing are between 0- 95 percent completion stages.
The ongoing projects consist of 45 transmission lines projects (Green Field), 70 substation projects (Green Field), four reinforcement projects (brown field projects). And the agency is also proposing to commence 14 new projects in the 2021 fiscal year
Magaji wondered why the agency would be introducing new projects in the 2021 fiscal year, when it had many uncompleted projects.
“We are trying to be realistic. We are have a huge debt of almost N165billion. We cannot complete these projects. Why are we introducing new projects? So, I think it is only correct if we stop you from doing new projects in 2021, that you concentrate on finishing the ones you have.
“I keep asking this question : what is the relationship between TCN projects and Siemens. The President has a very wonderful and good intention, but it is my opinion that until these TCN projects are achieved, the Siemens projects might not be what we expected them to be. “