Mrs Adefunke Kasali, the outgoing Executive Secretary Petroleum Equalisation Fund said the agency cleansed the entire system by going from manual system of operation., thus saving over two billion dollars (about N360 billion) through “Project Aquila’’.
Kasali sated this on Thursday in Abuja during the handing over ceremony to the news executive Secretary Mrs Asabe Ahmed.
“Project Aquila is a high-tech electronic loading and delivery system introduced by PEF to check leakages in the system, as well as enthrone transparency and due process.’’
According to her, PEF was able to implement a robust system where people doing fraud were forced to park and move somewhere else.
“The new initiative, also known as ‘e-loading’ ensures the delivery of petroleum products to the right destination.
‘The process has checkmated the annual loss of N15 billion to the activities of some unscrupulous petroleum tanker drivers who engaged in some unethical activities such as diversion of some petroleum products,“ she said
Kasali said that the agency had taken a bold step to eliminate corruption and ensure prompt payment of bridging cost through ‘Project Aquila’.
“We have cleanse the entire system, we have cleanse the downstream system we went from a manual system of operation where it took between 16 or 18 months before claim is paid to where we pay in two or four weeks .
“The system of giving 10 or 15 per cent before you collect your cheque is gone. Central Bank of Nigeria gave us award in 2013.
“We were the agency that the government understudied to direct all Federal Government agencies of government to commence e-payment because PEF did it and we have been recognised for it,” she said.
She said that through the initiative PEF had detected and stopped payment of more than N847million in fictitious claims by petroleum marketers.
The executive secretary said the project had also been able to remove encumbrances that normally caused distortions in the supply chain such as the issue of prompt payment of bridging claims.
“Just look at the way we designed the business we saved two billion dollars upfront because we wrote the codes in house and how about all the tens of billions we have saved by people that used to claim.
“There was a time when we stop 847 million naira worth of fake ticket and all the ones we have been saving ever since and we thank God for that,” she said.
Kasali also refuted claims that the board was underpaying some marketers or delaying their payment, saying that the PEFMB had been consistent in paying the right claims due to marketers.
This, she said, was in accordance with their capacity as approved by the Department of Petroleum Resources.
“Those who are complaining are those that the robust Project Aquila has blocked their old ways of “milking’’ the system and are uncomfortable with the new measures imposed to check past abuses.
If any marketer said he was not paid it means we could not confirmed that they were loaded so if somebody said his claim has been stocked it means that they were not loaded.
In her response, the New Executive Secretary, Mrs Asabe Ahmed lauded the achievement of Kasali and said she was going to build on the achievement.
“I can see a team of highly motivated professional and the efficiency I have seen in the system is due to all of you I have come to carry on from where she has left off.
“Because the good thing that are happening here is the efficiency that has been brought about by the system put in place,” she said
“Not a whole lot is going to change in term of process that is already in place I can only build on the outstanding that has been recommended for upgrading and improving the process,” she said.
She therefore called for cooperation of the staff stressing that the industry was a complex one that need the cooperation of all the stakeholders including the staff.