BEVERLY HILLS, September 06, (THEWILL) – The Group Managing Director, GMD, of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, has stated that half of the entire workforce of the corporation will undergo new trainings on how to identify and examine fraud in the state oil company.
Disclosing that this was part of measures to stamp out corruption from NNPC’s processes, he explained that the anti-fraud training would also ensure the corporation does not contribute to the five per cent annual revenue loss to fraud globally.
A statement issued on Tuesday by the Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division of the corporation, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, reports that the GMD spoke in his office while receiving a delegation of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, CFE, Abuja chapter, led by its President, Mr. Ishili Emmanuel.
“We will seize the opportunity offered by the CFE to train at least 50 per cent of our staff on fraud examination. We do know that there are a lot of advantages in getting as many staff as possible trained in fraud examination,” he said.
Baru stated that as the major foreign exchange earner for the country, NNPC was very mindful of issues of corruption in all its ramifications and had gone beyond looking at corruption in terms of money alone.
“NNPC under my leadership, has instituted what we call Governance, Risk and Compliance Division which is very much in line with the mission of CFE. The Division is not only looking at corruption in terms of naira and kobo but also at the system itself. The new Division will ensure that fraud did (does) not manifest in our system and if it does, it would be quickly nipped in the bud,” he said.
The NNPC boss further stated that corruption was a major contributor to inefficiencies in the corporation’s human resources, adding that staff found culpable were usually prosecuted and sacked, and that it was better to train them on fraud and safeguard them.
He pointed out that the NNPC was at the vanguard of providing support to anti-corruption agencies in the country with the necessary information on cases involving its employees and other relevant third parties often provided to them.
According to him: “We have been using the anti-corruption bodies effectively. Particularly, we have very strong collaboration with the ICPC.”
Baru stated that when he served as the chairman of the NNPC anti-corruption committee, he observed the need to train and certify fraud examiners which was why the current and long-standing secretary of the committee was a certified fraud examiner with about 10 others that have completed their training and were awaiting certification from the American body.
He thus directed the Governance, Risk and Compliance Division to immediately commence the process of registering NNPC as a corporate member of the CFE, urging the body to avail the corporation of all the opportunities therein in its fight against corruption.
In his remarks, the CFE President, Emmanuel observed that the NNPC as the apex oil and gas company in the country ought to have a robust human asset capability to deal with many of the unique socio-economic development challenges within the oil and gas industry.
