ABUJA —The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has concluded plans to conduct a forensic audit of the accounts of the state oil company and effect a fundamental restructuring to turn out a new NNPC in five months time.
The Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Emmanuel Kachikwu, who disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja said the audit will cover 2014 and 2015.
Major part of the audit will include a review of all contracts with its joint venture partners and production-sharing agreements.
He said: “Having said that things have been done wrongly, things need to be done rightly. We are doing a lot of work of repositioning, re-strategizing, getting the right personnel in the key places and setting a culture for accountability and service delivery.”
President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Kachikwu last week with a brief to root out corruption and mismanagement at the NNPC, which has been accused of failing to account for billions of dollars oil revenue in recent years.
The former Exxon Mobil executive has already dismissed all of the company’s executive directors and other top layers of management.
According to him, “there’s a people aspect which we are dealing with now, and after the people are put at the right places, we are going to get a forensic audit done that will cover us all the way to 2014, 2015.”
15 GGMs
Meanwhile, the corporation, yesterday, appointed 15 new Group General Managers (GGMs) to man some of its divisions.
The NNPC, in a statement signed by Mr. Ohi Alegbe, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, disclosed that the appointments were approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The new GGMs, according to the NNPC are: Mr. Mele Kyari, Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD); Mr. Ahmadu Sambo, NNPC Oilfield Services; Dr. Surajdeen Bola Afolabi, ITD/SAP; Mr. Zubair Aliyu, NNPC Capital and Mr. Dafe Sejebor, Nigerian Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS).
Others are: Mrs. Kemi Akitoye, Human Resources Division; Mr. Godwin Okonkwo, Finance; Mr. Bello Rabiu, Corporate Planning Division; Mr. Anibo Kragha, Treasury; and Mr. Dalhatu Makama, Shipping (Nidas & Nikorma).
The rest are: Mr. Samuel Ndukwe, GGM, Power; Mr. Mike Balami, GGM, Accounts; Mr. Yusuf Matashi, GGM, LNG; Mr. Rabiu Suleiman, GGM, Engineering & Technology; and Dr. Olubunmi Oyetunde, GGM, Medical.
Why 38 senior managers were retired
The NNPC further stated that its decision to retire 38 of its senior managers was borne out of the need to restructure the organization and also to save cost.
According to the NNPC, the downsizing which saw the exit of all senior managers who were billed to retire between now and December 2016 is also a cost-saving measure.
It said: “The task of restructuring the corporation into a lean, efficient, and business-focused organization has commenced with management’s approval of the retirement of 38 senior managers.
“The exercise, apart from gearing the corporation in the direction of a leaner and more efficient organization, has enormous cost-saving benefits.”
The NNPC had, a couple of days ago, stated that the retirement had helped reduced the number of its top management staff to 83 from 122.
It, however, added that in line with the aspiration to reposition the NNPC, 12 personnel had been recruited from the private sector into the top management cadre to jump-start a new business outlook to enhance the operational environment as a profit-driven business as against the current civil service orientation.(Vanguard)
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