WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION: New NNPC Director To Sack More Workers, As Company Restructures

The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, said on Thursday that more purges were on the way as part of activities aimed at restructuring the company for better performance and accountability.



He said the restructuring would affect all levels of the corporation with the new group executive directors and group managing directors taking the exercise to the lower cadres.

Kachikwu spoke with State House correspondents shortly after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“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,” he said.

When asked specifically how far the restructuring could go, the NNPC boss said it would be a complete exercise.

Kachikwu also said after the personnel aspect must have been done with, he would order for a proper forensic audit covering 2014 and 2015.

The exercise, he added, would show the true state of the company.

He expressed the conviction that the whole process would lead to a new look NNPC within five to six months.

He said, “The restructuring will be complete. I have done the first three layers, from the GEDs to the GGMs and general managers. You are going to have a lot more now. The GEDs and the GGMs will take it to the next layer, which is the lower layer.

“The whole idea is to go back to being able to look at your appraisals; and how well have you done in the job? If you have done very well, how do we elevate you to a position where you can offer more service? If you have not done well enough, we can retrain you and if you have not done well enough and there is no possibility of retraining you, we will let you go.

“The NNPC is not a public service. It is 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.”

Kachikwu said he was pursuing what he called a three-pronged process in the restructuring of the corporation.

He said, “It is three-pronged process that I am pursuing. There is a people aspect, which we are dealing with now. There is a process aspect. And after placing the people at the right places, you are going to get a forensic audit done, 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 take Nigeria forward. It is going to be the process stage.

“The final stage will be the business stage, which will be looking at all the existing contracts. Are they good? Are they okay? Do they need to be re-kitted and redone?

“We will look at the PSCs. What should we do, going forward? We will look at the challenges posed by reduced balance sheet as a result of $40 or $50 per barrel 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 over the next five to six months, you will begin to see a new NNPC. 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.”

When asked about his position on the President’s directive on the Treasury Single Account, Kachikwu said the directive was being considered.

He said he was looking at how to merge accountability with the need to ensure the survival of the industry.

“The reality is that to run an oil company, you’ve got to have funds. If you don’t, you will 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 bathwater,” he said.