The House of Representatives’ Committee on Anti-Corruption has adjudged the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as the best anti-corruption agency in Nigeria.
The commendation was given by a member of the Committee during the Commission’s 2019 budget defence before the Committee at the National Assembly complex recently.
The ICPC Chairman Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye had, after introducing the board members and the management team, presented a review of the 2018 budget and the achievements of the Commission such as the discovery of unremitted $131.6million Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) funds of which $57.1million had been recovered and transferred to the Treasury Single Account (TSA); the investigation and unravelling of the sum of N213million belonging to a tertiary Institution in a bank; recovery of N55.2million Excess Furniture Allowance from the chief executives of 27 tertiary institutions; discovery of N82.5 million generated by various departments of an MDA in a bank which was not transferred to TSA, among many others.
The Chairman also presented to the committee a budget proposal of Eight Billion, Nine Hundred and Eighty-Five Million, One Hundred and Thirty-Four Thousand, Three Hundred and Twelve Thousand Naira (N8,985,134,312) only, for the year 2019.
Reacting after the presentation, Hon Muhtari M. Chiromawa, a member of the House Committee obviously impressed, noted: “To my mind, ICPC is the best institution assigned to fight corruption in Nigeria”.
Speaking also at the occasion, Committee Deputy Chairman, Hon. Amiru Tukur Idris who stood in for the Committee Chairman at the budget defence session, congratulated the ICPC Chairman and the board members on their appointments, and on the achievements recorded so far by the Commission.