In line with its preventive mandate under the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and reinforcing its drive to strengthen integrity, accountability and transparency in public service and systems, the Ethics Compliance and Integrity Scorecard (ECIS) was developed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and is annually deployed in selected government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The ECIS measures how MDAs comply with ethical, integrity, statutory, regulatory and policy standards and requirements. The goal is to diminish corruption risk, improve ethics and integrity benchmark and improve service delivery. It was deployed between July and September 2020 in 352 MDAs. However only 220 MDAs responded despite a grace period of three weeks for submission. Assessed public institutions were also scored and rated according to their compliance level. While MDAs rated compliant on the score are commended, non-responsive MDAs have been classed as “Corruption High Risk Agencies” and listed for further inquiries and actions by the Commission.
Government institutions and agencies are reminded that the Scorecard will be deployed in 2021 and therefore enjoined to adopt and instill compliance values in their systems and procedures and respond as appropriate to the ECIS and other corruption preventive tools in our collective drive to fight corruption.