EFCC blames corrupt contractors for frequent national grid collapse

 

Ola Olukoyede, the executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has attributed the frequent collapse of the national grid to corrupt contractors’ activities.

 

The EFCC boss said this while receiving members of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes during an oversight visit to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr Olukoyede expressed concern that financial crimes and corruption undermined the nation’s development, adding that dubious practice was a major cause of frequent equipment failures, outages, and grid collapses.

According to him, one of the problems of this country in the last 15 years to 20 years is that budget performance is always below 20 per cent.

He said some electricity companies bought substandard goods to run the electricity, and this has been responsible for the frequent collapses of the national grid.

Mr Olukoyede lamented the poor implementation and execution of capital projects, saying Nigeria can not achieve infrastructural growth under such conditions.

“Investigations carried out by the EFCC showed that contractors in the power sector, who were awarded projects to supply electrical equipment, often opted for substandard materials.

“As I am talking to you now, we are grappling with electricity. If you see some of the investigations we are carrying out within the power sector, you will shed tears,” he said.

He also said the commission discovered that in the last 20 years, capital project implementation and execution in the country were not up to 20 per cent.

“Our mandate this year is to work with the National Assembly to see if we can meet up to 50 per cent of the execution of our capital project for the year.

“If we do 50 per cent, we will be fine as a nation. Lack of implementation of this capital budget is one of our major problems in Nigeria,” he said.

The EFCC boss called for effective collaboration between the lawmakers and the commission to achieve the commission’s mandate of fighting corruption.

Earlier, the chairman of the committee, Ginger Onwusibe, lauded the agency’s achievement.

Mr Onwusibe said the committee was at the commission as part of its oversight functions, aimed at monitoring the performance of ministries, departments, and agencies.

He expressed the committee’s readiness to assist the EFCC through legislation and budget allocations.

(NAN)