EKEDC appeals to NERC to drop N48m fine

The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) has appealed to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to drop the N48 million fine slammed on it for late submission of financial reports.

Mr Oladele Amoda, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of the company made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

NAN reports that NERC had on December 9, 2016 fined Afam Power Plc and the Eko Disco N18.5 million and N48 million respectively for late submission of the 2013 and non-submission of 2014 audited financial reports.

According to Amoda, NERC may have forgotten it approved the extension of deadline for the submission of audited financial reports for 2013 and 2014.“When we started as Distribution Companies (DISCOs), the government had promised that we should start on a clean slate.

“This means that the DISCOs were not to bother about the previous debts or whatever activities that had taken place before we took over the companies.“But the external auditors that we hired said that the trend cannot hold because there is continuity in a company.

“So the auditors took time to check all records because the defunct PHCN records were unaudited.“The records were not really there for the auditors to leverage on, so they have to start afresh.

“That took some time; we have to go to the field to do a lot of asset auditing.“So the deadline given by NERC was so short that it was impossible for EKEDC to meet up, so some of us sent letters requesting for extension,” he said.

He said that their appeal for extension was allegedly granted by the commission.Amoda said that the fine may have been due to misinformation.The managing director, however, said EKEDC had submitted its audited financial reports for 2013 and 2014.

“We have submitted our audited financial reports for 2013 and 2014.“So we are asking the commission to drop or reduce the fine to the number of days the reports were late,” he said.