Abstract:
This project work examines the issue of corruption and performance of public corporations in Nigeria, with Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as a case-study. The specific objectives of this study include: (i) To determine if corruption in PHCN constitute a major contributory factor which has undermined the effectiveness of PHCN to provided adequate quantity and quality of electricity in Nigeria, and (ii) To ascertain whether or not government regulation and policy on provision of electricity in Nigeria encourages corruption in the electricity sector. The theoretical framework of analysis adopted in this study is the Systems Theory which enables us to analyse PHCN as a system that receives input of demand and support from its environment and produces output in form of delivery of electricity services to its environment. The data for this study were obtained from secondary sources such as text books, journals, official documents, and articles and were analyzed with simple percentage method of analysis. The findings of the study are: (i) Corruption in PHCN does not constitute a major contributory factor to the ineffectiveness and poor performance of PHCN, and (ii) Government regulations and policy on provision of electricity in Nigeria encourages corruption in the electricity sector in Nigeria which undermines the performance of PHCN. Consequently, our recommendations advocate for government to ensure a comprehensive reform of the power sector and application of market principles in the operation of the sector to attract private investments in the sector as well as introduce and enforce policies that will protect the interests of the low income earners and low electricity consumers in the operation of the electricity industry..
