Corruption in Nilepet: Why the Current Managing Director of Nilepet is a Hyena in the Sheep’s Cloth
Nile Petroleum – Nile Petroleum Corporation | The National Oil & Gas Company of South Sudan
By Deng Joseph Mareng, Juba, South Sudan
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 (PW) — I want to start by dispelling the myth lingering in people’s minds that the current Nilepet management is the Messiah administration; this misconception has capitalised on many folks due to sycophants’ efforts by some social media stooges who have made spreading misleading information their job. The goal of the managing director’s supporters is to conceal the infectious activities of the managing director and divert public attention so that South Sudanese live in delusion. In human civilization, we watch or experience other people’s behaviour, whether it is positive or negative, and we learn from it. Some of us imitate it, some reject it, and still, others choose to ignore it. Some responsive leaders immediately discover that their every action and performance appears to be scrutinized. At the water cooler, they recount their accounts of what happened. With the analysis, we will know how Chol Deng Thon Abel’s second term is tragic.
Under his current leadership, the National Oil and Gas Company has been left in ruins and has been reduced to nothing more than a corruption-driven entity, both at an administrative and financial level. I’m attempting to outline the corrupt practices at that government business entity in this essay, and, I think readers will agree that the current management of Nilepet has engaged in dishonest practices that range from bribery, lack of integrity, and crooks to perverse, twist, and wicking, and engaging in evil practices. The current managing director of the National Oil and Gas Company (Nilepet) has adopted the nepotism approach since being appointed, sticking to a policy of employing relatives and friends.
Through this methodology, he has employed a significant number of his relatives in an institution as if it is his father’s private enterprise, this type of employment is being questioned by a group of citizens in other institutions. This led to the unfavourable and maybe accurate perception that the entire employment strategy in that institution is targeting friends and family; that these actions are used to further personal goals that serve no purpose for an institution whatsoever and that it is the riskiest for the reputation of the institution as well as government.
The present managing director has chosen to work for the establishment of the dynasty; he is attempting to place his stooges in sensitive positions so that, should he get fired, his family and friends will be in a position to take over the business; making him the curator of Nilepet who can even administer the institution while at his home. All of the Nilepet subsidiaries are currently being managed by persons he considered to be his closest associates.
Technocrats who have long managed these subsidiaries are either marginalized or discredited through blackmail that they are loyal to former managing directors who once led Nilepet. The problem isn’t only confined to employing family members and friends; it also extends to giving them promotions and higher grades within the institution without considering how this would affect the company’s performance in terms of output and workplace morale. Some of his friends and family members were just hired right into higher jobs from positions far from the field of petroleum engineering. For instance, a lot of the people who scream the Managing Director’s praises on social media have been awarded jobs and, to make matters worse, they are promoted to higher grades before the provisional promotion deadline as required by the laws and guidelines.
Some people may believe that it is his right to employ South Sudanese because they are citizens, but employment is solely the responsibility of the ministry of labor, and even though Nilepet is a government business institution with the authority to hire people, this authority does not mean that it is a privilege for a bureaucrat in the position of authority to wilfully choose to hire family members and friends overqualified applicants. To be fair, adopting employment based solely on kinship may reduce productivity and open the door to claims of favouritism and nepotism, thus weakening the institutional capacity to render public services.
Favouritism is one of the most dangerous forms of administrative corruption that may have disastrous effects on society, and it is practised with the intention of limiting it to the private sector if one of the managers wants to or promotes one of his employed relatives because of a kinship relationship instead of another employee who is more qualified. The current managing director of the National Oil and Gas Company (Nilepet) does not deserve to be the director of this institution since it is a public entity.
The controversy involving employees receiving social benefits is another shocking example of corruption at Nilepet; although the company’s legislation and policies have set up medical insurance for all employees, none of the money from these benefits really goes to the people themselves. The insurance provider that was hired by the former managing directors to perform the services has recently had difficulty. The current managing director allegedly divulged to himself a substantial portion of that shady arrangement and was attempting to terminate the contract and transfer it to another company deemed to have promised kickback.
However, the company threatened to sue Nilepet due to the penalties of the default clause provided in the agreement. They are currently in negotiations, and one requirement set forth by the managing director for the company to continue providing services is to give the managing director the lion’s share portion.
The managing director of Nilepet has siphoned a significant amount of employee social benefits since his reappointment, vis-a-vis clothing allowances. Under murky circumstances, Nilepet employees have been denied these benefits for nearly a year. Money may have been stolen and diverted to the managing director’s account, specifically for his own use. All enrolled members of the Nilepet are entitled to a clothing allowance each year on the anniversary month of their initial stipend, as has long been known.
This allowance is intended to cover the cost of replacing liveries that have undergone normal wear according to the company’s internal grading system. In other words, each employee receives a certain amount of money to cover the cost of buying work attire and contingencies. All the workers are carrying out their duties without this money because it has been redirected to one man’s pocket. In a nutshell, this act has increased employee unhappiness and misery as a result of the declining popular responsibility and response in Nilepet, these employees are now more prone to tolerate (or even demand) harsh and illiberal methods of management.
Although Nilepet employees have historically been known for receiving the best welfare, recent corrupt practices have had a disproportionately negative effect on the company’s poorest and most vulnerable workers, driving up costs and restricting access to services like health care, education, and other employment benefits. If left unchecked, the corruption in Nilepet will probably exacerbate other issues, undermining the fairness of institutions and procedures and altering general government priorities and policies.
As a result, it will dent the legitimacy of regimes and cause the public to lose faith in and support for the government and its institutions. Nilepet, which is a major source of national income, has a profoundly harmful effect on the public sector because, if the president doesn’t move immediately to address it, it can breed a culture of corruption within the whole government.
The author, Deng Joseph Mareng, is a cadre of SPLM and could be reached via dengwallat@gmail.com
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