By Emma Ujah

Three of the four firms pre-qualified by the Bureau of Public Enterprises for the management contract of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) have submitted their technical and financial proposals.
The BPE in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, named the firms as ESB International of Ireland, Power Grid Corporation of India and Manitoba Hydro International of Canada.
It said with the receipt of the technical and financial proposals, the BPE was now set for the evaluation of the technical proposals following which the financial bids of those firms meeting the minimum technical score would be publicly opened.
The Federal Government through the BPE had, last year, placed advertisements in several national and international media calling for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from firms interested in the management contract of TCN.
Eight EOIs were received. Following a pre-qualification exercise, four prospective management contractors were short-listed. Request for Proposals (RFP) was sent to the pre-qualified firms on February 28, this year.  A pre-proposal conference for the management contract of TCN was held in Abuja on Monday March 2, 2007. At the conference, bidders were given clarification that would guide them in preparing excellent technical and financial proposals.
TCN is the only transmission company following the restructuring of NEPA/PHCN into six generation companies, 11 distribution companies and one transmission company. It is a fully-owned Federal Government company whose functions include ownership and management of Nigeria’s transmission assets, system operations and the newly introduced market operations.
Of the NEPA/PHCN successor companies, only TCN is to go into a management contract while others would be subjected to other forms of private participation specific to them. The decision to procure a management contract for TCN came after careful consideration of its peculiarities that include its status as a natural monopoly and the need to introduce an arrangement that would bring long term benefit to the nation through the impartation of global best practices to Nigerians who would take over after the expiration of the contract.
The management contract that would last an initial three-year period is envisaged to speed the transition of TCN from a primarily engineering company to a commercially oriented company.
 Source: vanguard