ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. More purge is coming at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as the Group Managing Director (GMD), Mr Emmanuel Kachikwu, has signalled his intention to take the present restructuring of the corporation to all its cadres.
He told State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday that the ‘A to Zero’ restructuring he has embarked upon was meant to put the right personnel in the right positions for the purpose of accountability and service delivery.
He said the restructuring of the organisation would be three-pronged and having completed the first two, which involved Group Executive Directors (GEDs) and Group General Managers (GGMs), attention would now be focused on the lower layer.
The GMD revealed that there would be a forensic audit to determine the state of affairs at the corporation following which staff needing elevation, retraining and disengagement would be identified for appropriate action.
He explained that “the whole idea is to go back to being able to look at your appraisals; how well have you done in the job and if you’ve done very well, how do we elevate you to a position where you can offer more service. If you’ve not done well enough, we can retrain you and if you’ve not done well enough and there is no possibility of retraining you, we will let you go.
“At the end of the day, NNPC isn’t public service. It’s a corporation and we run like a company generating money for the people of Nigeria. And so, that whole concept of anything goes should stop. And this is the first stage of that whole process.
“It’s a three-pronged process that I am pursuing. There’s a people aspect which we are dealing with now; there is a process aspect; after the people at the right places, you are going to get forensic audit done so that we know clearly, proper forensic audit that will cover us all the way to 2014, 2015, that will be able to say to you, this is the state of the company.
“We are going to put processes and control in place, we are going to do retraining and repositioning and then, we are going to re-engage our majors and minors, all those who are active in the sector, for us to work as a team to try to take Nigeria forward. It’s going to be the process stage.
“The final stage will be the business stage, which is now looking at all the existing contracts if they are good, need to be re-kitted and redone. Look at the PSCs, what do we do going forward? Look at the challenges posed by very reduced balance sheet as a result of $40-$50 per barrel type oil, what do we do to energise recovery and income growth so that government will have money to work with?
“It is a very intensive work, very calibrated work, a lot of us are not spending time sleeping. But by the next five to six months, you will begin to see a new NNPC emerging; a new process of oil administration in the country and obviously, giving fillip to Mr President’s dream of taking the oil industry back to where it should be.”
The GMD, who did not want to be drawn into the perceived corrupt reputation of the NNPC, added: “I don’t want to over critique an institution I have taken over please. Having said that, things have been done wrongly and things need to be done differently.
“We are doing a lot of work in terms of repositioning, restructuring, getting the right personnel in key places and setting a culture of accountability and service delivery so that the new NNPC that you are going to see will be a different institution altogether.”
On how the presidential directive for all government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to pay money accruing to government into a single account would affect its agreements with Joint Venture Companies (JVCs), he indicated that the NNPC may not be able to meet up with it as it would require funds to run the system.
However, he said the corporation was looking into ways to ensure accountability and openness without jeopardising its ability to carry out its statutory duties.
His words: “All that is being looked at. The reality is that to run an oil company, you’ve got to have funds to do it. If you don’t, you close down the corporation and the production system will close down.
“So, we are looking at how to merge the need for accountability and openness with the need to make sure that the industry itself survives. We cannot throw away the baby with the bath water.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced the appointment of new group general managers for some of its divisions.
In a statement issued by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Ohi Alegbe, NNPC, in Abuja on Thursday, the corporation stated that in a bid to restructure to a lean, efficient and business-focused organisation, the management had approved and commenced the retirement of 38 senior managers.
The statement explained that the downsizing of staff, which saw the exit of all senior managers billed to retire from now to December, 2016, was designed to reduce cost.
“The exercise, apart from refocusing the corporation in the direction of a leaner and more efficient organisation, has enormous cost-saving benefits,’’ it said.
It listed the new general managers as Mr Mele Kyari, Crude Oil Marketing Division; Ahmadu Sambo, NNPC Oilfield Services, and Dr Surajdeen Bola Afolabi, Information Technology Division/SAP.
Others are Mr Zubair Aliyu, NNPC Capital; Dafe Sejebor, Nigerian Petroleum Investment Management Services and Mrs Kemi Akitoye, Human Resources Division.
Also Mr Godwin C. Okonkwo, Finance; Bello Rabiu, Corporate Planning; Anibo Kragha, Treasury and Dalhatu Makama, Shipping.
The statement also named other group general managers as Samuel Ndukwe (Power), Mike Balami (Accounts), Yusuf Matashi (LNG), Rabiu Suleiman (Engineering and Technology) and Dr Olubunmi Oyetunde (Medical).
Credit: Tribune (Nigeria)
