Managing Director of Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO), Mr. Adebayo Fagbemi, at the weekend, said that the agency saved the Federal Government a whopping N91 billion in addition to clearing the liabilities accumulated by the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) before it was privatised in 2013.
Speaking to reporters after the agency was presented a gold plaque by the Bureau of Public Service Reform, (BPSR), for its performance in public service delivery after undergoing a successful organisational self-assessment process, Fagbemi said: “We developed a model we refer to as a Triangular Verification Model. As you are aware, we inherited debts of the entire defunct PHCN which amounted to N914 billion. So, that model we put in place will enable us to conduct due diligence on the inherited debt.
“From that model, we were able to save N89 billion on behalf of the Federal Government and then through the discount solicitation window we saved another N1.8 billion. So, when you add that up, we are talking about almost N91 billion that we saved for the Federal Government,”
While presenting the plague to NELMCO, the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reform, (BPSR), Mr. Dasuki Arabi, said the organisation had fulfilled and met the necessary requirement in line with the self-assessment tool (SAT) adopted by the bureau, scoring NELMCO 86 per cent for its transparent operations and liabilities management.
“Following the validation of assessment of NELMCO by the bureau, NELMCO performance was rated as consistently meeting expectations in all essential areas of responsibilities,” he said.
Arabi said the self-assessment was an opportunity for agencies to recognise their weaknesses and strength as it will help guide them in service delivery.
“As I said, the self-assessment tool is giving them the opportunity to see their weaknesses and see their strength. We have jointly assessed the agency. We have noticed lots of issues and problems that they need to address. We have guided them. We are going to provide a team of resource persons including our in-house resource persons that will help them implement recommendations, and after six months we will come back to see how far they have gone. But, as I said, NELMCO is one of the points of success in public service delivery in Nigeria. We are happy with what we are seeing, and we are celebrating them” he said.
He, however, disclosed that the bureau had a target of assessing 100 agencies but as a result of the novel pandemic their activity has been limited as they have only covered 15 agencies. He said the assessment was a move to push for a revolution in public service delivery.
“We want to see a revolution in public service delivery, and improvement in quality of public service delivery in consonance with the open government partnership that Nigeria is committed to,” he added.
