Richard Elesho
Even as Nigerians are grappling with escalating costs of living, occasioned by the removal of subsidy on premium motor spirit, there is mounting anxiety among staff of apex industry regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, over allegations of lopsided promotion, poor depots management and other legacy issues.
The authority is a product of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, 2021, with Farouk Ahmed as Authority Chief Executive, ACE. It was created to reduce wastage and enhance efficiency by streamlining the functions of sister agencies in the sector. The legacy agencies are the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Petroleum Equilization Fund, PEF, and Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.
An insider who preferred not to be named for fear of victimisation claimed that since the merger, promotion exercises in the establishment have been irregular, with some junior staff placed far ahead of their senior colleagues.
It was gathered that when management noticed the anomalies, they encouraged people to forward their complaints to an appeal panel for review. However, the committee has yet to yield positive results since last year, leading to low staff morale. In addition, some merged agencies are said to be more favoured than others, in the general scheme of things.
The staff are also grumbling over an internal reform that altered the nomenclature of some of the workers. For instance, someone on grade level 17 who ought to be a director, according to civil service rules, is still addressed as a deputy director.
Another sore point is the alleged politicised and skewed manner staff are deployed for sensitive duty, with little regard for merit and equity. A source claimed that contrary to the provisions of PIA, no staff of the defunct PEF has been deployed to MDGIF(Midstream Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund), a directorate with semi-autonomous power to operate and drive investments in gas infrastructure in the value chain.
The source added that staff from PEF actually have the cognate experience of Fund Administration and Management for the past 5 decades. “Even the PIA stipulates that assets and liabilities of defunct PEF should be inherited by MDGIF. But this has not been the case in NMDPRA in the last 2 years.’
Efforts to get authority’s reaction did not yield fruit. Messages sent to the email address authority@nmdpra.gov.ng on its website did not deliver.