Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), yesterday told the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (upstream), that the Ministry of Interior should be blamed for constant violation of expatriate quota in the oil and gas Industry in Nigeria.
DPR Director General, Dr Tony Chukwueke, said this while addressing committee and stakeholders in the oil and gas industry, adding that the Interior Ministry, particularly the Immigration Department, allows oil and gas companies to come directly to get clearance for expatriate quota for cooks geologists, fitters and others, when there are several Nigerians that can do the job.
He said “it is a shame. But we have to take another look at the Industry Bill and marry it with other bills for improvement of the expatriate quota. Government had in 1987, suspended clearance for expatriate staff in 1987, which had a serious effect on the industry.
“But we have been engaging the Ministry of Interior. The Problem is that the DPR is not chartered by law to give expatriate quota. But they have the competence to decide whether a company needs an expatriate or the jobs could be done better by Nigerians. The problem is that they go directly to the Ministry and get the approval they want.”
He revealed that DPR cannot say or determine how many expatriates are presently working in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, adding that last week, following investigations, a company was found to have engaged the services of 640 expatriates. He said the issue is being tackled and the renewal of the licence of the company will only be possible after discussing with the DPR to determine if there are no Nigerians qualified to take up the jobs.
He revealed that most of the companies engage the services of the expatriates to solve the problem of unemployment in their countries.