28 May 2015, Lagos – The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has said the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme for which N21bn is provided in the 2015 Budget should be scrapped.
The association alleged that the SURE-P was at the whims of the party in power to settle those it wished to favour. It said that was the reason a lot of integrity issues dogged the programme.
The President, PENGASSAN, Mr. Francis Johnson, said this while addressing the media in Lagos, reeling out the association’s position on ways of revamping the Nigerian oil and gas industry by the incoming government of Muhammadu Buhari.
He also said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, made up of the holding office and 10 subsidiaries, had been subjected to undue political interference, which he claimed, hindered its autonomy for effective running and competitiveness.
Johnson explained, “Operations and administration of NNPC come under several masters and conflicting instructions, some of which defy the national objectives and aspirations for setting up the national oil corporation and its subsidiaries.
“Appointment, removal and/or transfer of the heads and the staff of the corporation and its subsidiaries are often executed in the manner that undermine by fiat, the extant national laws, NNPC Act and its Corporate Policy and Procedure Guide.”
PENGASSAN, therefore, called for the reorganisation of the NNPC and its subsidiaries to function effectively with clearer mandate and empowerment. This, he noted, would make the NNPC to operate and compete professionally in line with corporate governance principles and without undue political interference.
On the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, he said there was the need for full autonomy and responsibility, good corporate governance principles and practices.
NPDC, he noted, was structured in a manner that would dwarf its optimal performance due to some deliberate approaches and decisions by the management.
The PENGASSAN President said the NPDC’s operation and integrity were deliberately being frustrated by undue interference, underfunding, low attention to employment staff career, training and capacity development, poor response to staff conditions and welfare matters, among others.
He said the recent transfer of assets managed by NPDC to some persons should be discouraged as the association believed such speedy transfers remained questionable because they were hurriedly done by the outgoing government undermining due process.
PENGASSAN, therefore, urged the current government to halt all asset transfer from the NPDC and allow the new government to facilitate the transfers gradually, while allowing for more transparency.
– Punch
