By Ezra Ukanwa, Abuja

The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, has clarified that its recent emergency procurement was part of efforts to cushion the effects of insurgency and vandalism and the effects caused to transmission towers. 

TCN under the aegis of Civil Society Organisations Budget Implementation, Assessment, Evaluation and Monitoring Committee, made the clarification during a press briefing, at the weekend, in Abuja. 

The clarification was in response to a publication alleging that specific contracts termed emergencies and were not awarded in line with the procurement guidelines.

Speaking, TCN’s consultant, Oyofo Sule, bemoaned the insurgent attacks on power transmission facilities, stating that it has remained a major challenge, leading to intermittent power outages and hindering efforts to stabilize Nigeria’s electricity network. 

He said that the TCN believes that by making emergency procurement will minimize disruptions caused by such incidents and enhance the resilience of the power grid.

He said: “TCN has over 1,800KM of 330kV and 132kV high voltage transmission lines, and transmission towers traversing the entire nation, and several through very difficult terrains including swamps, forests, areas prone to flooding which cause rapid erosion of tower bases, and natural disasters. 

“Also, some of these towers and lines pass through landmines in insurgency-prone areas, which is inevitable as the lines must convey electricity to citizens. 

“These difficult terrains negatively impact transmission towers and also make it easy to vandalize the towers and lines underscoring the need for emergency procurement.  

“Also, the scourge of insurgency and vandalism threaten transmission towers bearing the high tension lines and when these towers are attacked, they must be repaired almost immediately to forestall the total collapse of the tower which often would drag and pull down a number of towers along the same line route, if not quickly remedied causing full system or partial collapse of the nation’s grid.

“In this case the method of emergency procurement to quickly effect repairs would be adopted. Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act 2003, states as follows; “A procuring entity may for the purpose of this Act, carry out emergency procurement where the; (a) the country is either seriously threatened by or actually confronted with a disaster, catastrophe, war, insurrection or act of God. 

“The condition or quality of goods, equipment, building, or publicly owned capital goods may seriously deteriorate unless action is urgently and necessarily taken to maintain them in their actual value or usefulness.

Under this condition, TCN can undertake emergency procurement of the projects.

“The Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), is the government Agency saddled with the responsibility of enforcing the monitoring and prior review of thresholds set by the council, for the application of the provisions of the Procurement Act by procuring entities, they stipulate to all procuring entities the procedures and documentation prerequisite for the issuance of “No Objection” for contracts to be awarded.

“Being professionals with expertise in the procurement process, they review all procurement submissions as it relates to the contracts, including the listed in the publication. TCN notes that the BPP thoroughly reviewed the contract documents before granting TCN “No Objection” and requested further clarification and documentation to support the method of procurement before they were approved.”