Petroperú manager wants to have all purchases under his control

On Petroperu there are purchases that only materialize if they go through the General Management. The provision came in February and meant a change in how acquisitions are made. How has the way of processing the goods and services that are acquired in this oil company that today directs Hugo Chavez as general manager?

On February 16 of this year, a new provision was sent in a circular by the General Management to different areas and levels of the company. Peru21 had access to this document and it requires that the company’s new purchases that exceed The S/46,000 must have the approval of the General Management.

“Acquisitions of goods, services, works or files, greater than 10 UIT must have, previously, the approval of the General Management. To this end, it is recommended that each corporate manager present periodically (preferably once a month) the list of these acquisitions, which must be supported directly to the General Management. After approval, all acquisitions must be referred to the Logistics Department Management for the corresponding process”, reads in the aforementioned circular.

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The provision implied a change in how acquisitions or contracting of services were carried out before in various areas of the company, since most of them went through a chain of approval. This meant that the purchases that needed to be made had to be reported and supported by the corresponding manager or supervisor. Then, he had to approve and validate the amount to be disbursed, and finally the request reached the level 2 manager, who are those executives who report directly to the General Management. However, that changed on February 16.

Almost a month later, on March 15, the General Management of Hugo Chávez sent another circular to the corporate managers, the head of the Institutional Control Body, the general secretary, the department managers and the head of the LAFT Prevention Body, which had as “subject” the “formation of work team”. This was an adjustment to the February 16 provision.

In summary, the General Management communicated that a work team was created “in charge of evaluating the need for the requirements for the acquisition of goods and services, works or files greater than 10 UIT; before being approved by the General Management”.

It is worth mentioning that said team, according to the document, was made up of the manager of the Logistics Department and the corporate managers of the Legal, Finance, Administration and Planning and Management areas, the latter being the president of said group. Finally, the circular indicated that the Corporate Planning and Management Office would also be in charge of receiving all purchase and acquisition requirements. That is to say, a team was created to review the purchases, but in any case the last word remained in the hands of Hugo Chávez.

suspicious modifications

For him former president of Petroperú, Aurelio Ochoa, Such modifications are within the legal framework, especially considering that, unlike other state companies, Petroperú does not respond to the Fonafe, which has rules for acquisitions. However, he stressed that there are internal controls that should be followed up so that there is transparency.

In this context, it is noteworthy that the former corporate Compliance Manager of the oil company, Zenaida Calderón Anticona, was fired after she reported irregularities in the purchase of 280,000 barrels of B100 biodiesel.

Anthony Lauban expert in energy law and a columnist for Peru21, considered that the measure adopted in February not only posed a problem for the agility of decision-making in the company, but also excessive control. “What sense does it make that the General Management is dealing with a purchase of 46 thousand soles? It is bureaucracy and control over all the purchasing processes of the company”said.

“Not only are the processes being hindered, but by taking away the freedom of the line managers, obviously what you are doing is controlling the processes, managing the bids and putting ‘micro management’ in the line managers. It does not make any sense. That is not management, neither modern nor efficient”, she warned.

Future in the hands of the president

This week, the MEF made it clear that it did not support the Petroperú administration or its board. The company had communicated that it had the support of the General Shareholders’ Meeting (JGE), made up of two representatives from the MEF and three from the Minem.

The act of good sense caused the Minem to confront the MEF on Friday and summon the JGA for yesterday so that the Economy sector gives “absolute approval and support in favor of Petroperú.” The Ministry of Economy did not attend because the call failed to comply with the formalities.

Last night, the president Pedro Castillo summoned Comptroller Nelson Schak to the Government Palace. Upon his departure, the comptroller said that he spoke with the president about Petroperú and explained that the central issue is the loss of credibility of the company’s corporate governance.

“You cannot continue in this situation of weak corporate governance, trust needs to be restored. I imagine that the president will take action in this regard.”I note.