…Demands sack of Chairman, reconstitution of committee
Victor Ahiuma-Young
2 October 2011, Sweetcrude, Lagos-PETROLEUM and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has accused the leadership of Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Committee on Expatriate Quota of compromise.
The umbrella body for senior staff in the nation’s petroleum industry demanded for the immediate sack of the Chairman of the committee and reconstitution of the committee.
Increasingly, the issue of expatriate quota abuse has become dominant in the petroleum industry, manufacturing, servicing and other sectors pitching organizing labour against management.
The oil workers called on all relevant government agencies, especially the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, to be alive to their responsibilities in checking expatriate quota abuse in the industry.
They lamented that despite the enactment of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, there had been increases in the influx of expatriates into the industry.
In a communiqué at the end of by the Association for its newly elected leaders and national officers, the workers called on NIS to check the abuses and only issue expatriate quotas based on the technical recommendation of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
According to the communiqué, “Government’s agencies should be alive to their responsibilities in checking expatriate quota abuse. Government should review Nigeria’s educational curriculum to meet the demands of the oil and gas industry as well as encourage technical (including marine) education.
Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) should only issue expatriate quotas based on the technical recommendation of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the Department of Petroleum resources (DPR). The National Data Repository (NDR) domiciled in DPR should be well funded to carry out its mandate effectively. PENGASSAN should be represented on the Board of NCDMB. The present chairman of DPR’s Committee on Expatriate Quota, Dr. Walker having compromised himself should be sacked and the committee reconstituted.”
The Association asked its branches across the country to forward data on expatriates in their respective companies to the National Secretariat.
Speaking, PENGASSAN President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, said some of these expatriates come to Nigeria through tourist visas and work for many years with Temporary Work Permits (TWPs).
According to him, the government should review Nigeria’s educational curriculum to meet the demands of the oil and gas industry as well as encourage technical education, including marine education in the country.
Ogun noted that the National Data Repository (NDR) domiciled in DPR should be well funded to carry out its mandate effectively.
For effective monitoring of implementation of the Nigerian Content Act, Ogun said PENGASSAN should be represented on the Board of NCDMB, and urged the Association’s branches not toy with the directives to forward data on expatriates in their respective companies to its National Secretariat to enable the national office tackle effectively the menace of expatriate quota abuse.
