The Federal Government on Monday announced that Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR), the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) have been officially disbanded.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, on Monday said the agencies will be replaced with Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NURC).
According to him, based on the provisions in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the workers in the three disfunct agencies will be retained while the chief executives have been relieved of their appointments.
The minister said, “The law states that all the assets and even the staff of the DPR are to be invested on the commission and also in the authority. So that means the DPR doesn’t exist anymore.
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“And, of course, the law specifically repeals the DPR Act, the Petroleum Inspectorate Act, the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Act and the PPPRA Act. The law specifically repeals them. It is very clear that those agencies do not exist anymore.”
“The law also provides for the staff and the jobs in those agencies to be protected. But I’m sure that that doesn’t cover, unfortunately, the chief executives, who were on political appointments.”
“The authority has its staff coming from the defunct PEF, PPPRA and DPR. The commission has staff coming over from DPR and the process is going on for the next few weeks.”
Sylva stated that the inauguration of the boards on Monday marked the beginning of the successor agencies.
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