The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) enlisted as the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) partner company to demonstrate its commitment to entrench transparency and accountability as well as stamp out corruption from its system, its Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, has said.
As part of its commitment to the fight against corruption, Kyari said the NNPC has set up processes and structures to ensure transparency and accountability in all aspexts of its operations.
“We have created an anti-corruption desk in NNPC that engages on a regular basis with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-corruption agencies. “The desk ensures that in all our operations, every staff of the corporation complies with the code of conduct procedures with consequence management.
“Also, we have established regulatory compliant governance charter and transparency policy, this is a mark of our compliance to the anti-corruption strategy,” Kyari said.
The NNPC GMD was speaking at a public hearing held at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, on Thursday by the Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes to assess the level of implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy by government agencies and parastatals.
He said the Corporation was championing the fight against corruption in the oil and gas industry by adopting measures to curb incidences of corruption across its various business portfolios and units as a condition for being enlisted as a partner company of the EITI.
The EITI is a global group promoting the principles of transparency and accountability in the extractive industries to create value for resource bearing areas around the world.
As part of measures to promote institutional framework for entrenching the culture of transparency, Kyari said the NNPC has automated all its business operations and processes, to reduce ro the barest minimum opportunity for discretion.
He disclosed that on its own, the Corporation has reported several incidences of infractions, such as petroleum products diversion and crude oil theft to security operatives, including the police, the EFCC and other investigating agencies of the Federal Government to stem corruption within the oil and gas industry.
“For the first time in 43 years, NNPC, as a part of the evolving culture of transparency and accountability, published its Audited Financial Statements for 2018 and 2019. We are going to publish that of the 2020 soon.
“The AFS is the only document that tells how a company does its transaction. We are happy that by the time the 2020 AFS is published, Nigerians will see the dividends of our accountability. I can say boldly, no National Oil Company does what we are doing today,” Kyari said.
The NNPC, in collaboration with security agencies, he said, has reduced the incidences of pipeline vandalism to four percent throughout the country.
He however decried the rise in smuggling of petroleum products which he said has become a national challenge that must be addressed urgently to stem the huge loss to the nation associated with it.
The Chairman of the Committee, Suleiman Kwari, expressed happiness with NNPC’s achievements, particularly its great strides towards profitability.
He urged the Corporation to sustain the gains recorded so far for the good of the country.
