EEPCo chief executive officer, Mehiret Dibebe, was quoted by the Ethiopian media as saying that the company has already deployed 15 engineers in the country to manage and maintain the Bumbuna site, and that the corporation has already begun operations in Sierra Leone.
However, director of the Bumbuna project, Dr. Abdul Jalloh told Concord Times that there was no such agreement between the National Power Authority and EEPCo. According to him, the contract for the management of the Bumbuna site was signed between the ministry of energy and water resources and the Italian-based firm, Salini Costruttori in October 2009, noting that the NPA has no link with Bumbuna as it operates independently.
"NPA has nothing to do with the management of Bumbuna. We are like a customer to them; we buy from them and sell..." he said.
Dibebe was also quoted as saying that EEPCo will train staff of NPA on the procedures needed to run the project in the future. But Dr. Jalloh disputed the claim, reiterating that there was no agreement with EEPCo to the train NPA staff.
"EEPCo will not be training NPA staff, it is Salini that will be training Sierra Leoneans on internationally recognised standards because it was they that signed a contract with the government," Dr. Jalloh said. "There may be Ethiopians contracted by Salini and they may be from EEPCo but that agreement has nothing to do with NPA. They have an 18-month contract with the government and who they bring in is not our problem. "
Jalloh also refuted claims that the NPA put out a tender in July 2009 to attract foreign power companies to operate and maintain installations at the Bumbuna site in accordance with internationally recognised standards, which was won by EEPCo.
"Our worry is that our donors, especially the World Bank, wanted to know whether the contract for the management of Bumbuna has been awarded to another company, and it is therefore relevant to clarify the errors in the publication," he added.
Also, minister of energy and water resources, Prof. Ogunlade Davidson reacted sharply to the publication, stating that the NPA or his ministry has no agreement with EEPCo.
Moreover, the minister said Salini Costruttori, the actual contracting firm for Bumbuna, might have a sub-contract agreement with the Ethiopians but that it has nothing to do with NPA or his ministry.
June last year, the government of Sierra Leone received a supplementary loan from the African Development Fund to meet the cost of completing Bumbuna. Government decided to apply part of the funds for the management, operation and maintenance of the plant and associated transmission facilities.
The construction on Bumbuna hydro plant began in 1970, but the 11 years conflict hampered its progress. The project was eventually suspended in 1997 when it was about 85 percent complete. Eight years later, in June 2005, the World Bank approved the resumption of construction.
The plant was finally commissioned in November 2009 by president Ernest Bai Koroma.
The project entails a hydro-power complex, located on the Seli River, in the valleys of the Sula Mountains, approximately 200 kilometres northeast of the capital, Freetown, in the Kalansogoia chiefdom of the Tonkolili district. It encompasses an 88 metre high rock-filled dam with an asphalted concrete upstream face; a 50 MW power station, housing two turbine-generator units of 25 MW each; a transmission system consisting of 200 km of 161 kV transmission line from the power station to Freetown.
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