Energy
Kachikwu shops for technocrats to reposition NNPC
Igwe Achese President, NUPENG
—oil unions set for a showdown
OREDOLA ADEOLA
The resolve of President Muhammadu Buhari to reposition the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC for greater performance, efficiency and commercial-oriented business culture may have gathered more momentum given the hints by the Group Managing Director last week that he was considering going into the private sector for personnel to rejig the oil industry and save it from the current rot. He also hinted at the idea of further loss of jobs.
Sources in the industry said the new management may have zeroed in on no less than 700 staff to be laid off in the coming weeks for reasons of inefficiency, non performance among others. The source, who confirmed under anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak, said that staff on salary grade M5, who are mostly senior managers, would constitute the bulk of those to be axed, adding that this would amount to a massive shakeup in the troubled corporation, which is being repositioned by the new management in tandem with the resolve of Buhari to have a new oil industry.
This move appears to have the backing of some stakeholders as many of them have at different times canvassed that the only solution to the ills in the sector is effective structuring and adequate monitoring of the operations, which should be based on transparent processes and best practices. They said the original plan of the management was to pay-off such employees with at least five years of service to go, but when it realised that the computed severance package was huge , it scaled down those listed to employees with one and half years to retirement. Our source said the bulk of those to be affected by the next round of lay-offs would be those of the subsidiaries and that the exercise would be conducted by the new Group General Managers.
In a statement issued at the weekend by Mr Ohi Alegbe, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division after a session with the management staff of corporation and the managing directors of the nation’s four refineries, in Abuja, Kachikwu made it clear that he would bring in technocrats who will run the corporation as profit-oriented organization as against the civil service culture of disregard for best practices, efficiency and sound management that had hitherto been the way of the corporation for decades.
According to the GMD, the corporate service unit and all the strategic business units of the NNPC would be run as profit centres. He however noted that the four refineries capacity required about 300,000bpd, adding that local refineries do not need all the 445, 000 barrel per day crude allocation to the corporation.
He further disclosed that the directors of the refineries would be empowered to take certain decisions without recourse to the headquarters, a move which would enable the corporation to assess their performance. He said, “Any manager who cannot meet his targets would be replaced and if I have to go to the private sector to get capable hands to manage the refineries I will. All local crude allocation to the corporation must be accounted for in the new dispensation
He also cautioned that the days of perceiving the corporation as a civil service is over, even as he charged the management staff to team up with him to close the skills gap and turn the fortunes of the corporation around.
According to him, his administration will create conducive working environment for members of staff, adding that for NNPC to transform into a profit establishment, the morale of the work force must be high.
Meanwhile, the GMD, charged the newly constituted management, to provide leadership by example to the workforce. According to him sectionalism, tribalism and any form of non-transparent transactions must be completely stamped out.
He also warned the members of staff of the corporation, to maintain professional ethics by acting as change agents. He also promised that within the next 60 days, some of the strategic targets would be translated into concrete milestones to the appreciation of Nigerian
Earlier, the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), have kicked against the approach being adopted by the new GMD, in the implementation of some his reform programmes with the corporation. The unions, revealed this in a joint statement signed by Mr. Francis Johnson, the President, PENGASSAN, its counterpart Mr. Igwe Achese of NUPENG.
According to the unions, the oil workers are not being carried along in some of the reforms. They however implored the new GMD to recover the stolen trillions of naira in the sector rather than retiring and sacking innocent workers, which is seen as an act of cover-up.’
The union noted that they are fully in support of the fight against corruption and reforms being carried out, but warned that the cleansing within the corporation should not be aimed at the staff of the corporation whom the government swore to protect.
The Union said, “The ongoing exercise portends a great danger in the oil and gas sector, if workers are meant to bear the brunt of government’s current action where the fight of corruption is now used as an act of vindictiveness against workers.
“We dare Dr. Kachikwu, to recover the stolen trillions of naira in the sector rather than retiring and sacking of innocent workers. We see the action as an act of cover up. We are quite sure that the ongoing action is not the idea of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We are therefore calling on President Buhari to call the GMD to stop the ongoing sack action in the corporation and set up a team to review his action for justice, equity and fairness which Mr. President stands for.” he noted.
The unions further revealed that they had made efforts to reach out to PMB, on the issue but were being kept in the dark by those in charge of protocol.
“However, our commitment to protect and defend job security and welfare is paramount and cannot be sacrificed. We shall approach it as it becomes expedient whatever government steps and actions that are viewed as dialectical or capable of suppressing our missions and objectives as a labour movement.
“We are being put on the spot as representatives of organised workers in the oil and gas industry to react to the manner that government is now treading and introducing to carry out change while none of the critical challenges of review of industry policy and fiscal framework, cash call and counterpart funding obligations, stability of the downstream oil and gas sector, pipeline sabotage, oil theft, that we have presented for immediate attention, are being given secondary attention.”
The unions however noted that the gale of abrupt loss of jobs currently sweeping through the NNPC was sending very wrong signals to their members throughout the industry as the issue of job security was making them agitated.
