OPINION > One Thing & Another Governance And The New National Power Authority Management Posted by on Jan 16, 2008, 05:24

In the euphoria that attended the arrival of the generating sets during the Xmas week, sounding a note of caution may easily has been construed as negative or indeed unpatriotic.

However, in a fledgling democracy like ours such caution should not just be dismissed lightly but should be welcomed, looked into and properly addressed. The article on the state of affairs at NPA in the Standard Times edition of Tuesday December 11, 2007 did raise a number of such cautionary issues. Some of these are still to be addressed though the present article attempts to bring back into focus as well as others which are pertinent not only to the energy issue but also in governance.

According to the article, contracts have been awarded by the Ministry of Energy and Power (MEP) to two other Companies as Independent Power Providers (IPP) in addition to the World Bank approved IPP contract.  Whilst the contractual arrangement regarding the latter is public knowledge, the same cannot be said for the other two companies both with Nigerian links.

Coincidentally, these companies also tendered for the World Bank IPP project but were unsuccessful and, shortly after their failure to secure the World Bank funded IPP contract, they suddenly emerged as IPP Contractors without going through any public bidding. It has even been suggested that the contract between these companies and the MEP did not appear to have had prior sanction from other relevant state institutions like the Law officers Department and the NCP according to the article.

It would appear that as far as the MEP is concerned the availability of electricity is all that matters and as long as this goal is achieved it obviates any need for further questioning by the interested public. In short the end justifies the means!

But questions are bound to be raised and indeed have been raised by public bodies like the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers who, in a letter recently published by the Standard Times, enquired amongst others to see the IPP contracts signed between the NPA and/or the MEP and the two companies, particularly the contract awarded to Income Electrix who are about to complete the installation of another 15MW at the Black Hall Road NPA Station. A hefty Two Million Dollars ($2,000,000.00) was spent only to airfreight the generator sets and ancillary equipment into the country.

It is therefore to be hoped that, in the interest of transparency and democratic governance, the MEP will make the facts about these contracts known to the general public without further delay.

Beside the IPP contracts, it must be realized that there is more to providing sustainable electricity than simply purchasing generating sets. The mechanics must be put in place to contribute to bring the profitability necessary for sustenance and growth.

Paramount in all of these is the need to have available within the NPA the required human resource base having the necessary technical and managerial capabilities to meet the many challenges that lie ahead.

Sadly, it is here that the Government policy appears very ill-informed and deficient. For a Government supposedly of technocrats it is odd to have at the very top of the Ministry of Energy and Power a Minister who, despite her enthusiasm, lacks the requisite managerial let alone technical skills for the position. Her recent gaffe that NPA junior staffs do all the work and not the Managers exemplifies her little understanding of engineering practice. The Deputy Minister is similarly not endowed in this field. At the Board level, you have a Board Chairman who, despite his considerable managerial skills as a retired Major General, is also deficient technically. But most glaring of all is the General Manager who, by his own very admission, is also not an Engineer but an Economist by education, training and experience.

With the premium the Government is putting on the energy sector, and in particular electricity, it is strange that the top four decision makers at the NPA have, at best, only a tenuous association with engineering. The new General Manager’s case, in particular, is most bizarre and needs further comments.

Despite claims to the contrary, he has never been an engineering Manager anywhere. He worked, according to him, as an economist on energy conservation at the Pennsylvania Power Pool in the USA. Now, the Pennsylvania Power Pool, like other large utilities around the world, employing non-engineering professionals for various special functions and the GM was employed as one such functionary and NOT as a line engineering manager. His appointment at NPA is akin to appointing the legal adviser or other non-banking professional in a commercial bank as the General Manager of the bank.

According to the NPA Act, General Managers must have “proven experience in engineering and administration”. The new GM may have administrative experience but, by his own admission, he lacks engineering training and experience and does not therefore meet the basic requirements for the job. He cannot from a technical perspective stand up to energy experts from donor agencies like the World Bank, European Union, JICA etc all of whom have indicated willingness to provide funds for the sector but who, no doubt, would expect a technically qualified interlocutor at the NPA to prepare the briefs/documentation that are required to facilitate the process and, more importantly, bring it speedily to fruition. From all accounts, within and without, the GM is a Charlatan in engineering who eschews technical discuss of any kind preferring instead. Only the mundane non-technical activities of the post.

Also, his appointment to the position without the vacancy being advertised and without an interview is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently. For a Government hoping to pride itself on propriety, fairness and justice, this action is clearly unbecoming and only provides further grist to the mill for those already accusing the Government of nepotism, tribalism and regionalism.

The Government has lots of goodwill both locally and internationally and it would be foolish and tragic for our nation to allow any action or inaction in a key priority area to start dissipating this goodwill so early.