The head of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, has again reacted to allegations of
corruption and insubordination raised against him by the Minister of State for
Petroleum, Ibeh Kachikwu.
In his second response in two
days, Mr. Baru said he did no wrong and repeated his argument that the NNPC
board chaired by Mr. Kachikwu had no powers to regulate or approve contracts
awarded by the state oil company.
Mr. Baru spoke on Monday when
major unions in the oil and gas sector, PENGASSAN and NUPENG, paid the
embattled Group Managing Director a solidarity visit.
He accused Mr. Kachikwu of
bandying “humongous” contract figures to incite the public, and described the
allegations of award of contracts without regard to due process as “unfounded
and unfortunate”.
Mr. Baru said as a former
chairman of the NNPC Anti-Corruption Committee, he would be the last person to
breach the procurement process by disregarding extant laws and rules.
He said both the NNPC Act and
Public Procurement Act vested procurement powers on the NNPC Tenders Board, the
President and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) depending on the cost
threshold, stressing that the NNPC Board had no role whatsoever in the process.
”I know for those of you who are
following what we are doing here, you know that there’s no money lost and no
process has been breached,” he told the visiting union leaders according to a
statement issued by Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC Group General Manager Group Public
Affairs Division.
”Our contracting process is
perfect and we will continue to follow the process. The NNPC Board has no role,
I repeat, has no role as far as the contracting process is concerned,” Mr. Baru
said.
He said the crude term contract
and the DSDP agreements were not contract as such but pre-qualification of
off-takers of crude oil.
”The case of DSDP, is of those
that will take crude and give us products in return.
”So there is no value to them.
But humongous figures have been put forward mainly to incite the public, it is
most unfortunate.” The statement said the unions pledged support for the
“transformation stride” of Mr. Baru.
The statement said the unions
pledged support for the “transformation stride” of Mr. Baru.
The statement said the Petroleum
and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria
Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and their members
considered it appropriate to rally round Mr. Baru and the NNPC Management to
pledge their support.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
We shall see
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete