The Lagos State office of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has urged staff of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) to imbibe ethical behavior as it will add value to the organization.
The advice was given recently by Mrs. Mary Omonoyan of the ICPC Lagos State office while making a presentation titled, “Benchmarking Ethics and Integrity Initiatives for an Efficient Organization” at a sensitization session organized by NEPZA in its office.
Omonoyan stated that ethics was very important to any organization as it improves organizational growth, efficiency, productive, good work habits and proper service delivery, and urged the management of NEPZA to adopt policies that promote zero tolerance for corruption, reduce vulnerabilities and encourage an open-door system to encourage staff to speak out.
She further asked that the agency supports the ACTU with funding and includes them in statutory committees as observers for transparency.
She enlightened the staff of some ICPC ethical initiatives such as the National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP), deployment of the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS) in MDAs, Public Sector Integrity Awards, capacity building trainings through the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN), among others.
Earlier, while delivering her opening remarks, the ACTU Chair, Mrs. Shade Adenekan, Deputy Director Centenary City, Abuja, noted that the sensitization came as a result of the organization’s poor rating on the EICS, which prompted the need to come up with an Ethics Policy, to guide staff in their day-to-day ethical conduct in and outside the office.
She commended the NEPZA management for supporting the ACTU to conduct the sensitization series in Abuja, Lagos, Calabar and Kano, so that inputs from staff can be included in the policy.
At the end of the programme, some of the recommendations were that chief executives of MDAs should be invited for sensitization sessions as it will motivate them to support ACTU activities and curtail excessive spending, and staff of NEPZA should systematically attend ethics trainings in ACAN.
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