Point accusing fingers at expatriate Manager

By Ikenna Anyanwu

Some concerned Nigerians have alleged that a Lagos-based Italian Oil and Gas company, Saipem, engages in what they called ‘anti-Nigerian Policies ‘ to the detriment of its work force and against the governing laws of Nigeria. They called on President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently intervene in the matter.

President Goodluck Jonathan

Acting under the aegis of Niger Delta Local Content Compliance Group, NDLCCG, the concerned Nigerians alleged that the operations of the company is seriously undermining ‘the concerted and committed efforts ‘ of President Jonathan towards ensuring that the Nigerian Local Content Policy is functional and implemented to the letter.

They alleged  that one of the expatriates heading the Procurement Department of the company, Mr. Zagaglia Simone, has blacklisted 17 duly registered companies that use to do business with Saipem without rational reasons and that he had cleverly set out plans to remove highly placed Nigerian staff in his department and replace them with people that support his anti-Nigerian stance.

Other allegations made against the Procurement Manger of the company includes; discarding the conventional bidding process with which vendors bid for jobs and instituting a complex e-procurement arrangement to give undue advantage to foreign companies, sourcing and procuring over 95% of main project materials directly from abroad thereby negating the ideal local content policy and frustrating Nigerian Companies doing business with them etc.

According to the group,”Indigenous companies are limited to only the supply of sharp sand which they must painfully bid through the e-procurement process.  As locals, it agitates our minds how a local sand supplier with no computer or e-procurement experience can succeed in applying for sharp sand supply through the e-procurement process?  This wicked act is just another absurd way of denying the locals the supply of sand.

“The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, in an attempt to intervene on the matter had instructed the manager to downplay the e-procurement process in order to afford members of the host communities the opportunity to benefit from the company’s presence on their land, however, that has continued to fall on deaf ears.”

Also, as part of local content agenda put forward by NCDMB, expatriates working in the Nigerian oil and gas industry are required to undertake biometric registration as part of conditions they must fulfill before their organizations can secure expatriate quota approvals from the board.  Similarly, the stipulations must be verified.  However, the reverse is the case with Saipem.

“As at today, the stipulations on allocation of the number of new expatriates or extension of stay of those already in the country to work in a particular project is only on the paper used in writing the Content Act and not carried out judiciously.  The foreign operators have abused their allowed expatriate quota with impunity simply because they have found ways of circumventing the system that was supposed to monitor compliance,”they stated.

Threatening that youths of the area and other aggrieved parties are poised for confrontation, the concerned Nigerians stated that “we are singing war songs and we are determined to take our destiny into our own hands if President Jonathan fails to act on time.”They also called on both the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC and other graft agencies to investigate the company.

Concerted efforts made by Crime Alert to speak with officials of the Italian company failed woefully as calls placed on their phones rang ceaselessly without reply.  A text message detailing the allegations and pleading for comments was also not replied to as at the time of going to press.