*As FG earmarks N70bn for staff liabilities

By Tordue Salem

ABUJA—The House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation has written the leadership of the Green Chamber seeking a fresh mandate to dredge up important facts on the sale of Nigeria Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and the Mobile Telecommunication Limited (MTEL).

The companies were first handed over to Pentascope Limited, a Dutch Telecoms Company in 2003 by the Bureau for Public Enterprises, as a managing consultant, but the transaction was annuled by the House Committee on Communications in 2005. The N101billion, later said to be realised from the sale of the companies, the House Committee in its report, said did not go to government coffers.

The  report of the Committee, prepared by Reps. Yemi Arokodare (PDP/Ekiti) and Leo Ogor (PDP/Delta), even went as far as banning the Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai from holding public office in the future, for what they claimed was his shoddy handling of the deal.

The fresh proposal to review the investigation of the proposed sale of NITEL and MTEL by the Rep. Abbas Braimah- led House Committee on Privatisation, is however coming on the heels of claims that the Federal Government has already set aside an extra-budgetary N70 billion to pay off staff in the companies.

The Committee report seeks an urgent public hearing to avoid a repeat of obstacles to the the sale of NITEL and MTEL.

The Federal Goverment had in the past failed to sell NITEL and MTEL to Investors International London Limited (IILL), Orascom Telecom of Egypt and Transcorp and Pentascope.

The House Committee Chairman, said his committee had earlier requested for relevant documents from the Director of Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) to review  “numerous petitions” against attempts to privatise NITEL/MTEL.

The Committee thinks availability of such information would help it prepare a more detailed report for the plenary session to deliberate on .

The committee quoted BPE submission which listed the three unsuccessful attempts to sell NITEL and MTEL and the fact that “the appointment of Pentascope International B.V Private Limited as management contractors actually depleted the value of the enterprise rather than enhance its fortunes.”

The committee contends the corporate integrity of the country would be maligned if the government failed again to sell the telecoms companies.