A Contentious Report

The company is also constructing the $131.25m Gbarain Simple Cycle plant in Bayelsa State, the $120.79m Egbema Simple Cycle in Imo State, the $156.04m Omoku Simple Cycle in Rivers State as well as jobs on transmission lines and sub-stations. Rockson’s officials maintained all the contracts underwent the necessary due process. The simple cycle phase of the Alaoji contract was scheduled to be completed on 15 August 2009 while no date was fixed for that of the combined. The completion schedule for the Gbarain job is 30 November 2009, 19 December 2009 for the Egbema plant and 16 November 2009 for Omoku. Apart from the Alaoji sub-station which has been determined to be completed on 10 August 2009, completion dates were not fixed for the Owerri sub-station, the Onitsha sub-station, the Owerri-Alaoji transmission line, Owerri-Onitsha transmission line and Omoku-Egbema-Owerri transmission line, all of which Rockson is also handling.

There was no love lost between the power committee, led by Elumelu, and Rockson’s officials, when the former toured the projects in March, in the light of Elumelu’s preceding indicting words. The officials boasted they had a lot to flaunt before the visiting committee members to give a lie to Elumelu’s assertions; they were, however, astounded when the members arrived late to some of the project sites for their inspection.

At Omoku, the legislators did not bother to alight from the bus that conveyed them there when they arrived by 8 p.m., which raised questions from Rockson’s officials and the accompanying reporters on how the committee would be able to conduct a proper assessment and turn in an objective assessment. They arrived Egbema by 7.45 p.m. and the contractor had to mount special floodlights to enable the assessors attempt an inspection.

Initially, on arrival, the legislators decided to stay in their bus while they conversed with their hosts, and one of them could be heard saying it was not necessary to alight before the bus departs. Reporters heard Sir Joseph Arumeni-Johnson, vice-chairman of Rockson, appealing to the legislators to alight and go round the site as journalists were on hand to record events there. The lawmakers obliged, but because it was late already and the floodlights could not span the entire site, the inspection could not but be brief. It was the Alaoji plant that the legislators really did inspection justice to, going round the entire site and requesting from Rockson officials clarifications on many issues.

In its report, the committee lampoons Engineer C.N.O. Nwachukwu, the Chairman, Technical Committee and General Project Manager, NIPP, “for gross negligence and incompetence in the conceptual development of NIPP projects”. The Rockson management frowns at its mention in the committee’s condemnation of Nwachukwu for his “extremely poor professional judgment in recommending the award of three power stations EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) - Gbarain-Ubie, Omoku and Egbema - to Rockson Engineering without regard to the contractor’s lack of capacity to execute these contracts alongside the Alaoji phase I and II projects; incompetence, unprofessional conduct in recommending the expansion of scope for Egbema, Gbarain-Ubie and Omoku power plants and award of same to Rockson Engineering mindful of the contractor’s lack of capacity to successfully execute these projects.”

Rockson’s officials, last week, took exception to the committee’s description of the company as incapable of executing the projects awarded it. They said the attitude and utterances of some of the committee members during the probe and their eventual report do not encourage indigenous participation in big projects like power plants construction. The officials insisted that but for the nonchalance of the federal government in evacuating the turbines meant for use for the project from the Onne port where they have been stuck since last year to the project site, and failure of the incumbent Umar Yar’Adua administration to release funds, Rockson would have completed, at least, phase one of the project.

Civil works are, indeed, advanced at Alaoji, with bases for the four turbines already completed and generator starter motors in place. Generator step-ups have also been installed and lighter components of the turbines stored on the site. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria Resident Engineer on site, Engineer Okey Udeh, told journalists there last Sunday that construction work on the site is done throughout every week, including on Sunday. He disclosed that engineering and procurement, which he described as more crucial in any EPC project, is 70 per cent completed and construction, 30 per cent. The contractor said the job is 60 per cent completed in general terms.

Mr. Biyi Sangowawa, an Executive Director of Rockson, explained that delivery of two steam turbine generators for the project have since last year been completed at the Onne port at a cost of $52.9m. Additionally, generator step-ups for the steam turbines for phase II have also been delivered at a cost of $35.3m while installation of four 170mva transformers for the first phase is on-going.

The major constraint, beside non-release of money, against completion of the Alaoji project is the problem of conveying the gas turbines stuck at the Onne port to site. The turbines, weighing about 300 tonnes each, had been deemed too heavy to be conveyed over the Imo River bridge, which was built for load not above 170 tonnes. Unfortunately, unlike the turbines meant for use in the other project sites that Rockson is handling which were moved through a river to the Gbarain and Egbema sites, there is no other route through which the Alaoji turbines can be moved to site except the bridge.

What seems to be the only alternative to convey the turbines to site is the construction of a ramp or jetty bypassing the bridge across the river. This is estimated to cost about N2billion. Sangowawa stated that there has been a flurry of correspondence between Rockson and the PHCN/Federal Ministry of Power and Steel in which the contractor harped on the urgent need to resolve the problem of how to convey the turbines to site. The Rockson management expressed disappointment that the PHCN and the ministry have not bothered to accord the matter the urgency it deserves. With the turbines neglected to rot away at the Onne port for about a year, work is stalled at the Alaoji project site, as there is no way work there can be completed without the turbines in place. The footdragging on the turbine conveyance, it was said, would affect the completion date of the project. Officials of Rockson wondered why the committee would not situate blame appropriately on the delay in completing the project in the right quarters.

At the Gbarain site, two gas turbines, two generators, two transformers and turbine auxilliaries have been delivered and stored. Rockson officials said general job is 48 per cent completed. Gas turbines have also been procured and delivered at Omoku and Egbema as have some other vital equipment. Journalists saw piling work that would ultimately form bases for the turbines, generators and transformers being done at all the sites.

The contractor spoke of the hindrance to early success that starvation of funds has constituted. On all the projects, work could not begin effectively on the scheduled take-off dates because of late payment of advance charges. And since Obasanjo vacated office in May last year, the federal government has not released any money to finance the project. Arumeni-Johnson told journalists in Lagos two weeks ago that despite government’s non-release of money, Rockson has been forging ahead with procurement and construction on the sites to prove a point that a Nigerian company can efficiently do hi-tech jobs that have always been awarded multinationals.