The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, on Thursday, said more purging was on the way as part of his 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 layers.
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,” Kachikwu told reporters.
When asked specifically how far the restructuring would go, the NNPC boss said it was a complete exercise.
He said after the personnel aspect would have been completed, he would also order for a proper forensic audit that would cover 2014 and 2015.
That exercise, he added, would show the true state of the company.
Kachikwu expressed the conviction that by the time the process is completed within five or six months, a new NNPC would have emerged.
He said, “The restructuring will be complete. It is A to Z. I have done the first three layers which is going to the GEDs to GGMs and General Managers. You are going to have a lot more now. The GEDs and 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; 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.
“At the end of the day, 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 he was still on the people aspect, while there was still a process aspect.
“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; after the people at the right places, you are going to get forensic audit done so that we know clearly, proper forensic audit that will cover 2014, 2015, 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 try to take Nigeria forward. It is going to be the process stage.
“The final stage will be the business stage, which is now looking at all the existing contracts; are they good, are they ok, do they need to be re-kitted and redone?
“We will look at the PSCs, what do we do going forward? We will look at the challenges posed by very 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 six months, you will begin to see emerging 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,” he added.
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 the need for accountability with the need to ensure that the industry itself survives.
“The reality is that to run an oil company, you’ve got to have funds to do it. If you don’t, you 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 bathe water,” he explained.
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