The Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) has been criticized over inadequacies in its pet project "Project Aquila"; a system designed for the monitoring of loaded petroleum products from the tank farms and the subsequent payment of bridging claims to marketers.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that petroleum marketers at a recent meeting with the General Manager Corporate Services of PEF and his team to Lagos Zone, condemned PEF for lacking adequate manpower to coordinate the Project Aquila at the depot.
The Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) has been criticized over inadequacies in its pet project "Project Aquila"; a system designed for the monitoring of loaded petroleum products from the tank farms and the subsequent payment of bridging claims to marketers.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that petroleum marketers at a recent meeting with the General Manager Corporate Services of PEF and his team to Lagos Zone, condemned PEF for lacking adequate manpower to coordinate the Project Aquila at the depot.
A petroleum marketer and Secretary of the Techno Oil Unit of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) Mr. Onward Onwundiwe in a chat with our correspondent after the meeting said that the PEF has always been having a lot of challenges, especially in the area of network failures which in turn makes tracking of products across the country difficult.
Onwundiwe also noted that the bad roads across the country, as well as the attendant traffic gridlock have equally limited the efficacy of the Project Aquila.
He also said that another challenges pointed out by the marketers was the time constraint in the Project Aquila, according to him, the workers close work by 5pm, but loading of petroleum activities sometime continue even at night.
"One of the major challenges is that PEF does not have enough staff to mount the tracking system, imagine Kirikiri that has up to five depots, we have only three PEF officials to attend to all the depots, this pose a challenge", he pointed out.
Onwundiwe said that sometimes marketers do not get their bridging claims as at when due and that it will sometimes require their traveling down to Abuja before collecting their money.
"But the defence that PEF is putting up on the issue of network failure is that they are not the one cause, its due to network failure from the service providers, they assured us that with time this will be corrected"
"They also told us why there is problem with people tracking their money, they told us that it is as a result of the scandals, people register shoddy companies just to dupe the PEF in bridging claims, they put fake office addresses and other information, now the PEF is just being extra careful before giving the claims" he said.
Prior to the meeting, the PEF management in Lagos zone had in a notice sighted by Shipping Position Daily informed the Lagos staffed that "We all know that Lagos is the centre of excellence and we cannot fail in this regard, let's put our best on this assignment to achieve unparalleled successful outings in the zone"
The meeting was held for three days at various depots in Apapa, including Folawiyo, Ascon, First deepwater, Ascon, Oando, Chevron among many other depot facilities.
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