ABUJA — The Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, has clarified that bank guarantees submitted by preferred bidders on the companies they are buying would be returned to them upon the payment of 25 per cent of the purchase price.

An earlier position announced by the bureau, on Monday, was that the bank guarantees would be returned to the preferred bidders only upon the payment of the full purchase price.

However, the agency’s spokesman, Mr. Chukwuma Nwoko, said in statement in Abuja, Thursday, that there was need to make the clarification to align the payment requirements with what were originally contained in the Request for Proposals, RFPs.

The statement reads in full: “The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) wishes to clarify the payment mechanism by preferred bidders for PHCN successor generation and distribution companies.

“Our earlier press statement on Monday, October 29, 2012 in the wake of the approval of the preferred bidders by the National Council on Privatization (NCP) had informed that the preferred bidder’s bank guarantee submitted to the Bureau by preferred bidders will be returned only after full payment for the companies.

“The correct position as reflected in ‘Commercial 6’ of the Request for Proposals (RFP) issued to bidders is that upon the payment of the 25 per cent of the purchase price, the preferred bidder’s bank guarantee will be returned to the bidder.”