WARRI— CHEVRON- Registered Itsekiri Procurement Contractors, an association of indigenous contractors registered with the procurement department of Chevron Nigeria Limited, has accused high-ranking employees and officers of the oil company of excluding host community contractors from contract opportunities in Chevron.

The group made the claim in an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan entitled, Persistent Marginalisation, Criminal Neglect, Deprivation and Malignant Exclusion of Community Contractors from Procurement Opportunities in Chevron Nigeria Limited: A Recipe for Violent Confrontation in the Region.

The group, in a petition by Mr. Emmanuel Adidi, Chairman; Mr. Austin Ayions, Secretary; Mrs. Helen Tennyson, PRO; Mr. Isaac Dorsu and Deacon Daniel Odongharo, members, said: “High-ranking employees and officers of Chevron, charged with the responsibility of managing award of its contracts, deal with a select group of companies based in Lagos, Abuja and the United States of America, USA, fronting for them.

“They hide under the guise of the Cataloguing and Blanket Purchase Agreement, BPA, system designed to the absolute disadvantage of local contractors duly accredited by the company.”

The host community contractors said only three per cent of the over 2,000 companies registered with Chevron’s procurement department as contractors are indigenous.

They added that less than 0.005 per cent of the $10 billion annual contract gets to the indigenous contractors. They also accused Chevron’s staff of attempting to cover their deals by misrepresenting to their corporate headquarters in the US that Lekki in Lagos was the same as Ugborodo, Escravos in Delta State.

“It may interest Your Excellency,” the group wrote, “that due to the brewing unrest occasioned by the lackluster disposition and lethargic reaction of the company to the call by constituents for inclusion and participation in contract opportunities available in the company, we had cause to make a desperate and comprehensive representation to its headquarters in the US without even been shown the courtesy of a reply. “

The local contractors asked the President to protect what they called “the Niger Delta peace project” by compelling Chevron to relocate its headquarters to Warri, Delta State; investigate the activities of the company’s procurement department in the last two years; ensure the company follows the Local Content Act of 2010 and redesign BPA to give a sense of belonging to local contractors.

They said: “We are prepared and willing to take our destiny in our hands should the Federal Government failed to act in a fair and equitable manner to redress the situation.”