The House of Representatives on Wednesday stopped the plan by the Board of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to pay a severance package of N2.7bn to the Chairman of the agency, Mr. Sam Amadi, and six commissioners.
The House took the decision as it also ordered an investigation into the abandoned 135km/330kv Omotosho-Epe-Aja transmission line, which had left the people of Epe without electricity supply since 2005.
A member from Bauchi State, Mr. Mohammed Gololo, drew the attention of the House to the proposal by NERC to pay its chairman N400m as severance package and another sum of N380m to six other members of the board.
He informed the House that the “strange” proposal was meant to pay the affected officials’ salaries and other benefits upfront for two years on exiting the agency.
Gololo stated that NERC defended the package on the grounds that Section 36(2) of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act barred a member of the board from working in the power sector for a “period of two years after leaving office.”
But, the House noted that the lives of the officers were not tied to the power sector, as they could work elsewhere after completing their assignment at NERC.
Part of the motion moved by Gololo under matters of urgent public importance, reads, “The House is aware of the decision by NERC board to pay its chairman and six members a severance package of N2.7bn, with N400m for the chairman and N380m for each of the six members.
“The approval of the package conflicts with the recommendations of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission and thus offends Section 42(1)(a) and (b) of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act.”
Lawmakers further observed that the proposed package had neither been approved by the National Assembly nor captured in the commission’s 2015 budget.
For example, they said NERC’s total budget for capital projects in 2015 was N42.2m, while no provision was made for recurrent expenditure.
Gololo added that the omission of recurrent expenditure raised suspicions as to whether the commission did not pay salaries to members of staff or “pays salaries from funds that have not been paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation in contravention of the 1999 Constitution. “
A member from Anambra State, Mr. Anayo Nnebe, noted that it was the common practice in many federal government agencies to allocate huge public funds for packages that could not be defended.
Nnebe, who described the NERC proposal as “ungodly, wicked and unbelievable”, said he could not understand how a public official would take N400m from tax payers’ money as upfront payment after leaving office.
Another member from Kano State, Mr Muhammad Wudil, an engineer, told the House that the power sector laws did not make any provisions for the type of packages proposed by NERC.
The House, which was presided over by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, directed its Committee on Power to monitor and ensure that the N2.7bn severance package was not paid to the officials.
Published as Reps stop NERC commissioners’ N2.7bn severance package in The Punch
