BEVERLY HILLS, October 05, (THEWILL) – The Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Senior Staff Association (PENGASAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have served notice of a nationwide indefinite strike over the Federal Government’s inability to settle debts of over N800 billion owed oil marketers.
The marketers are Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) and Independent Petroleum Products Importers (IPPIs).
This was revealed in a joint communiqué by the marketers signed by its legal adviser, Patrick Etim, after their joint National Executive Council (NEC) meeting saying in the last six months, the unions “have been inundated by officials of our various Labour units operating in Tank Farms and Depots across the country that most petroleum product importers and marketing companies are owing their members backlog of salaries now up to nine months.
“Our members working with oil companies have not been paid salaries for up to nine months by marketers due to inability of the government to redeem its commitment to pay in spite of the intervention of the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and the directive given to the Minister of Finance to effect payment on or before the end of July 2017.”
The marketers said that the first source of the N800 billion debt was the non-payment of the balance of over N300 billion under-recoveries under the importation template owed the marketers since 2015 and was provided for in the 2015 supplementary budget as well as the 2016 budgets.
It said the notice of the indefinite strike has been received by the marketers, who are the employers of the unions’ members adding that NUPENG and PENGASAN claimed that the children of their members had been sent away from school because their parents were unable to pay their fees.
“The most disturbing aspect of this is that many members are now redundant as their employers are not able to operate their bank account for their operations with a potential massive job losses of our members in the oil and gas sector and other workers in the banking sector due to the growing size of this non-performing loans extended to oil marketers with a catastrophic banking system collapse looming in the country,” the communique read.
“This will definitely puncture any growth gains made in the economy so far, considering that the sector will completely fail in its critical role of driving economic progress, resulting in huge job losses directly and indirectly.
“It is factual that currently many of the oil marketing companies are owing backlog of salaries up to nine months in arrears while some marketers have started retrenchment of workers as a result.
“The businesses of these marketers are gradually grinding to a halt due to the debts owed them by the Federal Government and the classification of their operating accounts by the banks crippling the ability of the marketers to trade since the first quarter of the year.
“Most banks are planning to take over our tank farms and business empires due to inability to pay back money borrowed to import products that were still pending unpaid by government.
“There is a need for President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to keep improving governance, especially by correcting wrongs of previous governments and making government responsible to its contracts and responsibilities.
“For the banks, their action is to see how they can avert another round of banking system failure that could be triggered by this huge outstanding non-performing debts owed the banks by oil marketers who cannot pay because the government is yet to pay them outstanding indebtedness.
“The Federal Government in June 2017 concluded reconciliations with the marketers and PPPRA and made a commitment to pay before the end of July 2017. This was following the intervention of the Vice President (who was Acting President at that time).
“The reconciliation team was led by the Chief of Staff to the President and the Honorable Minister of Finance Minister.
“Further to the reconciliation, it was gathered that the Federal Executive Council had approved the payment. However, the payment framework was said to have been sent to the National Assembly for approval and up till now there has been no feedback.
“We gathered from reliable sources that the National Assembly claimed that they are yet to receive any of such requests from the Finance Minister.”
