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Media group faults PEF’s mode of operation

By Roseline Okere
29 March 2018   |   3:38 am
Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board (PEF)(M)B into its Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall Shame due to its refusal to be transparent and preference for secrecy in operations. The group added that this only serve to heighten questions about PEF’s continued relevance in light of its failure to achieve…

PEF

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board (PEF)(M)B into its Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall Shame due to its refusal to be transparent and preference for secrecy in operations.

The group added that this only serve to heighten questions about PEF’s continued relevance in light of its failure to achieve the objectives for which it was established.

The primary responsibility of the Board is to reimburse petroleum marketing companies for any losses suffered by them, solely and exclusively, as a result of their selling petroleum products at uniform prices throughout the country.

The mandate of the Board is therefore to ensure that the uniform pricing mechanism that the Federal Government introduced during the period worked effectively throughout Nigeria and that each marketing company complied with the laws regarding the management of the transportation equalisation process.

MRA’s Legal Officer, Chioma Nwaodike, said in a statement on Monday, that more than 40 years after the Board was established, it has failed to deliver on the objectives that motivated its establishment.

She said that pricing of petroleum products has never been uniform across the country all through these years, despite PEF. “Perhaps, some transparency about the activities of the Board may have enabled us to understand what exactly it does and whether there is any reason for its continued existence in light of its apparent spectacular failure,” she added.

According to Nwaodike, “having been charged with the responsibility for reimbursing petroleum marketing companies for losses suffered by them as a result of their sale of petroleum products at uniform prices throughout the country, for which it is expending public funds in this regard, the Board owes Nigerians a duty to keep them informed about every aspect of its operations.”

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