Barkindo Tasks NNPC Workers, Lists Challenges of Reforms

As the nation’s oil and gas sector braces up for major structural reforms, the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo tasked employees of the agency to be prepared for the forthcoming challenges.
 The NNPC boss gave the challenge while addressing participants at the NNPC Chief Officers Management Development Programme (COMDP). The programme held in Abuja last week.
Giving an insight into what the oil and gas sector reforms is all about and what is expected of the corporation’s employees, Barkindo explained that “legislation can create structures but our transformation requires more than structures. It requires the right people and business processes. It needs the transformation of our organizational structure.”
He told the participants that, as emerging managers in the corporation, a great deal of effort was required from them as they were expected to lead the change and consequently tasked them to be guided by NNPC’s collective vision. “The future of the NNPC and indeed the industry belongs to you -to make or to mar. We are confident that together we can make it,” he said.
He also stressed that “changing our past corporate culture into the new is a necessity today – globalization and market dynamics demand it. We have no choice in the matter. We cannot continue in the old ways and expect a different outcome from the one we are currently in.’’
Explaining that the mandate of the Oil and Gas Reform Implementation Committee (OGIC) was aimed at engendering a new organisation that is successful as a commercial enterprise, he added that ensuring that the NNPC has a good and dynamic organizational culture is vital to the reform agenda, since it fosters employee development and encourages them to maximally impact the organisation. According to him the desire is for NNPC to meet the aspiration of all Nigerians.
Under the new arrangement, he said, the Corporation will be accountable for the competence of its management, its employees, as well as the degree to which its corporate culture fosters and maximizes competence