PEF Explains Essence Of Project Aquila

The Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) has said that the ongoing monitoring of petroleum product distribution electronically would curb malpractices in the system.

Mr Goddy Nnamdi, the fund’s General Manager (Customer Services), told The Tide in Lagos that the monitoring, tagged ‘Project Aquila’, would help to forestall fake claims by some marketers.

The Tide reports that Aquila is a Latin word for eagle, a bird known for its strength, speed and swiftness.

Nnamdi said that the fund would give priority to marketers who had keyed into the project.

“The electronic loading will guaranty accurate information on movement of petroleum products from one destination to the other and help government in policy planning and analysis,” he said.

He note that when the project was fully implemented, payment of bridging claims by marketers would only take two weeks, adding that  processing of claims was done manually in the past which had caused delays and impacted adversely on the marketers,  he observed that the new device would automatically provide details of all transactions and automatically raise an invoice in favour of the marketer pointing out that the agency had trained and deployed its officials to more than 80 depots being operated by the fund to implement the project.

The General Manager said that the movement of petroleum products were not monitored in the past, thereby making it difficult to either confirm or certify deliveries at designated depot areas.

Nnamdi advised marketers to ensure that their trucks were tagged, adding that any truck not properly tagged would not be allowed to load products in any depot.