THE House of Representatives Committee on Local Content, has accused major international Oil companies operating in the country of deliberately violating the Nigerian Local Content Act on the employment of expatriate in the petroleum industry.

THE House of Representatives Committee on Local Content, has accused major international Oil companies operating in the country of deliberately violating the Nigerian Local Content Act on the employment of expatriate in the petroleum industry. File: National Assembly Complex File: National Assembly Complex The Emmanuel Ekon-led Committee has therefore directed oil and gas companies applying for expatriate quota to seek approval from Nigeria Content Development Mana-gement Board (NCD-MB) before applying to the Ministry of Interior. Ekon who represents Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal Constituency of Akwa Ibom State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, expressed the worry over the sharp practices in the oil and gas sector at a stakeholders meeting on expatriate quota for Oil and Gas companies in Nigeria organised by the committee yesterday. Ekon said that the directive became necessary towards addressing persistent violation of the Nigerian oil and gas industry content development act 2010 with respect to expatriate quota approval. According to him, “many companies persistently violate the provisions of the Act and do not give full and fair opportunities to Nigerians”, alleging further that most of the companies have no expatriate quota approvals for the expatriates working in their companies. “Some of them have expatriates with no qualification or are not qualified to work in the industry. “The provision for first consideration for employment and training is often ignored and many of them do not have offices in community of operations. “Also training of Nigerians is very few as well as requirement for succession plan is often ignored.” He told the Federal Ministry of Interior and Nigerian Immigration Services to maintain strictly on the laid down conditions and ensure that they see a copy of the boards approval before issuing or renewing expatriate quotas for IOCs. Contributing at the meeting, a member of the committee, Rep. Nasir Ali Ahmed said that compliance with the local content Act will contribute in addressing militancy in the Niger Delta region. He said, “One of the reasons for militancy in the region is because local content is not adhered to. Full compliance will help by 70 per cent to ensure militancy is contained.” In his remark, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu said there was need for increased sensitization and enforcement of the law, adding that the world had traversed from monopolised employee status to global employee status. The Minister said, “There is need to ensure that the quality of people who are sent to occupy positions are qualified to justify their positions.