Management of the Bandim petrol station

The current topic is the management of the Bandim petrol station. Since Engen bought Total Guinea-Bissau, they have been leasing the stations to other companies. It seems however that the handing over procedures were not very transparent.
The Bandim petrol station was given to Mr Rosado who owns a small oil company called Rosado Combustiveis. He is a Portuguese and was a mechanics before going into the oil business.
The news shocked a lot of people.Engen is has given the management of the Bandim station to a competitor.
The truth is that Mr Badarou gets a share on all contracts signed by Engen Guinea-Bissau. Even before the lease agreement was signed the refurbishment contract for the Bandim station (fences….) was awarded to Mr Rosado while he is not in the construction business.
The other thing is during the hand over ceremony, Mr Ibrahima Sow, the marketing director said in front of all the people present: «You see all these people here, those who worked at the station? We have paid them off, therefore you are free to fire whoever you want.».
Mr Rosado fired them all except 2.Even if Engen has paid the staff off, is it correct to say such things in public?
Engen Guinea-Bissau, through Mr Bsstou Badarou has made may people jobless. Where are all the promises made?
Many employees say they would leave if they have the opportunity because they do not feel safe.
Engen says: « With us you are No 1».In Guinea-Bissau it is rather: «With us you are nothing».
Is it the same in other countries? I would very much like to know.

Mr Ramalho back at Engen

Mr Badarou allowed Mr Ramalho back after several people begged him.The was however a condition.Mr Ramalho will not manage the station anymore,he will be a simple pump operator.
Good luck to Mr Ramalho.

Engen GB fires another employee

It seems that nothing can Mr Badarou´s madness. He just dismissed another employee on the 25^th June 2009.Mr Ulysse Ramalho was the head of the Segunda Esquadra station. It belongs to Engen GB but is managed by a third party. That means the employees are directly employed by Engen and that there might be no documents concerning the issue.

Mr Ramalho is blamed for not stopping a construction team hired to build an ATM for a bank.

Yes Mr Badarou decided to lease part of the Engen space for an ATM.

The ECOBANK agents used to the station for inspections and Mr Ibrahima Sow used to inform Mr Ramalho of their visit. However last time, he was not told anything and the ECOBANK staff just told him that they had come to start work. Ulysse Ramalho, thinking that they had the agreement from the head office did not do anything to stop them.

When Mr Badarou heard the news later he rushed to the station,so angry he was hitting a table with his fist and fired Mr Ramalho on the spot.

ECOBANK has now finalized the process by signing a formal agreement, the construction work is almost finished and Mr Ramalho is jobless.

It is true Mr Ramalho made a mistake but was it this the only was to punish him?

In six months Mr Badarou has fired 2 employees, Mr Edgar de Jesus Pinto Vieira dos Reis and Mr Ulysse Ramalho and suspended the head of the Trade Union Mr Dezire Djaso.

Mr Badarou is creating a new oppression system and Engen is allowing to happen

Mr Badarou´s accident

The facts treated in the blog today came to my attention just some days ago.
They took place in December 2008.Mr Badarou newly appointed as director of Engen Guinea Bissau had an accident of the Ziguinchor-Bissau road. There were 3 people in the vehicle that belonged to Engen: Mr Badarou and 2 soldiers.
One of the soldiers lost his life in the accident and the other one came out unscathed. Mr Badarou was severely injured and he taken to São Domingos, the closest town then to Ziguinchor (Senegal) just minutes after the accident by some travellers.
He admitted in a hospital in that city that is about 200km away from Bissau.
After the doctors judged his condition stable he was taken to Dakar for further tests and care.
Mr Badarou went back to work about 2 weeks later. His co-workers were worried about him. However Mr Badarou is now well.
The thing is many seem to forget that there is need to know what happened. The vehicle belonged to Engen and the person driving was an Engen employee.
Was Mr Badarou working when he had the accident?
The other soldier who survived said he did know what happened because he was at the back. The only thing he could say was that he had the impression that Mr Badarou was driving fast. The road was good, no oil on the ground there was no traffic, he did not hit anything and the road was straight at particular spot for several kilometres.
What happened?
Nobody knows because Mr Badarou himself says he does not remember. Yes, amnesia.
A local radio brushed the accident and Mr Badarou tried to put a lid on that.
A man lost his life and nobody knows why or how. What did Engen do about it?A father and husband died but life continues. It is just……business as usual.

What is happening at ASB?

ASB is a company owned part by Engen GB part by Petrogal.
When Total was still in Guinea Bissau he director was one of the signatories on the accounts and an employee was appointed to manage ASB. employee knows a lot on the legal and technical aspect of supplies for planes. the current management is trying to replace him with the stocks manager.
1-In march 2009,Mr Bastou Badarou and Aminou Abache organize a meeting with the employees of ASB without informing the person appointed to manage the company.
2-Mr Badarou refuses to renew the contract of an employee of ASB, Mr Edgar de Jesus Pinto Vieira Reis and gives the stocks manager the green light to recruit somebody who happens to be one of his friends(who leased his pumps to ASB).Can´t ASB buy its own pumps?
3-It seems that the stock manager received a big salary increase.
The truth is that some get profit from the storing and sales of petrol and mixture.ASB due to its isolation is the right place to store and sell those products which makes it a strategic point.
The objective of Mr Badarou is to get rid of anybody who can disturb him in his illegal business.
First he pushes away the person responsible of the company.
Secondly, he gets rid of an employee who was line-managed by the stocks manager.
Finally, they hire the owner of the pump and friend of the stocks manager.
Nothing of this is known is Cape Town as all the information coming from or going to the headquarters pass through Mr Badarou and Abache.
When it is time for Engen to review the forecast or plans this year in Guinea Bissau, the reasons for low performance will be : political, military problems, elections, global crisis…
The true reasons like: bad management, conflict of interest, lack of motivation of staff, misuse of company resources, etc will never come up.
The only is that the whole Engen reputation will be permanently stained.

Engen GB in trouble

Engen GB might be in trouble after all the social tensions the company went through as they all have their consequences on performance.
Everybody knows that happy employees make a happy company. The employees´ conditions are very bad. The distribution of tasks, functions and benefits are done on affinity rather than performance. The salaries are among the lowest of the oil sector companies. The director is not interested in dialogue and his only objective is to get rid of any challenges and destroy the trade union. The end result is a total confusion that has consequences on the company’s sales and therefore performance.

Most of Total, now Engen GB customers were private companies, institutions, international organisations and NGO´s that are very strict on ethical issues. They have some principle that might make reluctant to continue dealing with a company that does not have any respect for the employees, people, laws and transparency rules.

What is the future of Engen GB?
Nobody knows.Only Engen can answer that question.

Injustice at Engen GB

The regional director for West Africa at Engen promised that there would be a salary review for the employees of Engen GB during a meeting in December 2008.However the only thing Mr Bastou Badarou did was to give the employees a salary increase.
One of the main issues is the fact that nobody knows what the criteria for the increase are. Some received 20,000fcfa, others more than 100,000fcfa increase. Many people now think that Mr Badarou did that in order to reward some employee who closed their eyes on some of his little arrangements.
Engen GB is one of the oil company in Guinea Bissau pays the lowest salaries.But that is not an issue for Mr Bastou Badarou as to him the employees are almost like slaves.
Threats, arbitrary punishments, blackmail and corruption are part of Engen GB culture now. All the employees suffer in silence because they are afraid and they have already seen what the price of asking questions is. They do not know what their rights within the company are (no access to the HR policies…).What Mr Badarou and mr Abache say goes.The employees feel left out because they have the impression that nobody cares as otherwise all those things would not have happened