ENERGY ANALYSIS
With the recent sack of three of officials found liable in the petrol stock fraud, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation appears set to purge itself of mismanagement and corruption, both of which are endemic in its downstream operations, writes Chineme Okafor
The NNPC last week announced it had concluded investigation into the sale without appropriate authorisation of 82 million litres of petrol valued at N11 billion by an indigenous downstream petroleum sector operator – Capital Oil and Gas Limited.
Consequently, three top management staff of the corporation, who, were found culpable in the illicit act, were disengaged from its system and subsequently replaced by new persons.
In a statement issued by its Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, which partly stated the outcome of the investigation, the corporation said the officials – Managing Director of NNPC Retail Ltd., Mrs. Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue; Executive Director of Operations at NNPC Retail Ltd., Mr. Alpha Mamza and the Manager of Distribution at NNPC Retail Ltd., Mr. Oluwa Kayode Erinoso, were relieved of their jobs.
It added that their sack and deployment of new persons to take over their jobs were in line with the ongoing reforms initiated by the NNPC to cleanse all facets of its business operations of corrupt practices, and corrupt officials.
Ughamadu explained that the trio of Mr. Adeyemi Adetunji, Lawal Bello, Mrs. Affiong Akpasubi, were appointed to replace the sacked staff as Managing Director of NNPC Retail Ltd., Executive Director of Operations NNPC Retail Ltd. and Executive Director of Services NNPC Retail Ltd., respectively.
He also noted that Mr. Agwandas Andrawus, was appointed within the same context to head the distribution department of NNPC Retail Ltd.
Exposing the irregularities
The corporation’s Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, Mr. Henry Ikem Obih, who provided details of how the infractions were perpetrated by the two downstream oil companies – MRS and Capital Oil, explained that it was discovered earlier in the year when NNPC had need to access over 100 million litres of petrol stored at the depot of Capital Oil for NNPC Retail and another 30 million litres in MRS Limited depot. Both depots are located within the Apapa area of Lagos.
Ikem-Obih noted that the corporation discovered that the products had been sold by both firms without authorisation. Such development, he stated were in contravention of the throughput agreements it had with them, thus prompting a deeper investigation to uncover what transpired.
He said that upon its initial investigations and demands, MRS opted to fully refund the 30 million litres of petrol it expropriated, while Capital Oil refused to refund the product.
The corporation also extended the investigation to its officials who were directly involved as the acts were committed while they were in charge.
The corporation further held that it would recover from Capital Oil the 82 million litres of petrol valued at N11 billion, which the company took despite the firm’s claims that it was equally owed monies by it for services rendered.
It stated that in addition to taking punitive actions against parties involved in the anomaly, it would also set up new modalities to guide its engagement of throughput partners in future.
The NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, stated that the Corporation under his leadership will not accept such underhand practices, and vowed he would recover the outstanding stock of the missing petrol in Capital Oil Depot.
Though the corporation did not outrightly disclose the parts played by its sacked officials in the entire process, insiders within it stated that they may not have committed any fraud parse in the sale of the products but perhaps failed to act appropriately when the first sign of the act was reportedly brought to their notice by relevant field officers.
Similarly, other sources suggested that the officials may had been aware of the development, but perhaps chose to look the other way. They further alleged that one of the indicted firms had in the past committed such act and got away with it.
Reforming throughput arrangements
Even though one of the downstream operator – MRS, has reportedly refunded the corporation what it took from it, the NNPC said it would ensure that Capital Oil refunds its expropriated petrol stock.
Baru, stated that the corporation will also set new modalities to guide its engagement of throughput partners.
He therefore charged the new staff deployed to replace the sacked three, to remain committed to their duties in line with the transformation aspirations of the NNPC.
Baru however did not state in clear terms the form of reforms that would be introduced in its future throughput agreements, but Ikem-Obih, in one of his interactions with journalists on the development, noted that new control measures would be introduced by the corporation in its management of future throughput transactions.
Also, if properly implemented, NNPC’s planned reform of its downstream operations would come in line with a countless number of reform proposals made by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on the corporation to cleanse itself of reported instances of corruption within its system.
The NEITI had in its various audits of the country’s oil and gas industry, charged NNPC of countless infractions in all areas of its operations, including the downstream sector where the corporation appears to have initiated new steps against corrupt practices.
