The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Ibe Kachikwu has announced that restructuring will continue.
This comes after the NNPC trimmed staff strength from 122 to 83 after a Presidential directive. If many thought the move was once off, the GMD has assured it is not.
After a meeting with the President, he told journalists, “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,”
On the issue of restructuring, he said, “The restructuring will be complete. I have done the first three layers, from the GEDs to the GGMs and general managers. You are going to have a lot more now. The GEDs and the 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; and 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.
“The 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.”
He said, “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. And after placing the people at the right places, you are going to get a forensic audit done, 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 take Nigeria forward. It is going to be the process stage.
“The final stage will be the business stage, which will be looking at all the existing contracts. Are they good? Are they okay? Do they need to be re-kitted and redone?