The Technical Committee (TC) of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) on Thursday recommended to the council that the result of the final bid of the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) be accepted and that the necessary letter be issued to the preferred bidders, New Generations Telecom. This is as the Chinese firm, which New Generations Telecom claimed to have link with again denied having any arrangement with the consortium.
The recommendation by the technical committee is to put to rest the controversies surrounding the bid that the preferred bidder, New Generations Telecom did not have a working relationship with its technical partners, China Unicom. The opening of the financial bids for NITEL was undertaken by the TC on behalf of the Council on Tuesday, February 16, 2010. This was followed by unsavory comments that impugned the integrity of the transaction. Taiwo Osipitan, acting chairman, Technical Committee, while briefing newsmen on the development, said the committee met on Wednesday and examined the documents of the preferred bidder based on the statement credited to the technical partners by the media, and observed that due process was followed and the bidding was done transparently with integrity.The committee, he said, noted that exhaustive diligence was carried out by both the committee and the transaction advisers, BNP Paribas Consortium.
Osipitan explained that shortly after the technical partners' statement, the committee received a correspondent from Unicom Euro, a separate and distinct entity from China Unicom though a parent body of the company, as well as letter from China Unicom that it has a working relationship with the preferred bidder.
Source: NITEL sale controversy: NCP clears New Generations Telecom (http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8813:nitel-sale-controversy-ncp-clears-new-generations-telecom-&catid=85:national&Itemid=340)