Perception of corruption in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC is based on Ignorance.
Chairman of NNPC, Anti-Corruption Committee, Mike Stanley Balami disclosed this in an interview with the NNPC News, a monthly publication of the Corporation.
Balami affirm that the wrong impression comes from people who are outside the institution and who don’t know how the system operates.
He described NNPC as a corporation that came from a ministry background and one of the most probed public institutions in Nigeria that have lots of processes in place.
“There are lots of rules and regulations that govern the way things are done here. The forefathers and current top management of NNPC have maintained those rules, regulations and processes, which make it very difficult for somebody to deep his hands and take money out of NNPC treasury without being traced. The Anti Corruption Committee has ethics and regulations contained in the Corporate Policy and Procedure Guideline (CPPG) which were given to each staff to enable them have a good understanding of what constitutes an act of corruption,” the chairman said.
He also disclosed that, “With Nigeria being on trial of corruption and NNPC being the major contributor of the revenue (90 per cent) that goes into the federation account, people tend to believe that since NNPC has 90 per cent of the money that means it has 90% of the thieves. Most people think we operate the same system as the ministries, where once you have an approval, you walk to your cashier and collect the money. Before you see money here, you will have to fill an advance, which has to go through an approval process that must be signed by an approving authority, before payment is made.”
Balami also shed more light on the recent allegations on the $1.05 billion subsidy fund that was said to have been withdrawn illegally from the NLNG account, explaining that the current management has put the records straight, regarding anything that has to do with the NLNG dividends.
“The $1.05 billion was withdrawn to help in making products available, it was granted by the president to NNPC. That was what NNPC has been using as a revolving fund,” he explained.
Balami, however, attested that while discharging their duties as an anti corruption committee, there are cases where the committee members have faced challenges.
He said, “We had cases of people trying to come and bribe us to do something. When they fail, they will go ahead and start spreading rumours that they gave someone money or something to give us just to rubbish us.”
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