The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has expressed its readiness to support the Open Government Partnership (OGP) ahead of the implementation of its 3rd National Action Plan in Nigeria.
Founded in 2011, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
While hosting Nigeria’s delegation of the OGP who were at the Commission’s Headquarters on an advocacy visit, the ICPC Secretary, Professor Musa Usman Abubakar, stated that the Commission had long keyed into the initiatives of the OGP, adding that the Commission would ever be ready to sustain the existing collaboration.
“Given the importance of Open Government Partnership to ICPC and the Nation at large, the Commission has been participating in some of its programmes and sometime in 2019, we travelled to Georgia with the Special Adviser to the President on Open Partnership, where we learnt more on open procurement systems”, the Secretary added.
On the National Action Plan, Professor Abubakar stated that the Commission would continue to sustain the existing collaboration with OGP, particularly in the area of fiscal transparency and anti-corruption just as he advised that a draft copy of the Action Plan could be forwarded to the ICPC to make an input.
Earlier in her address, the National Coordinator of Open Government Partnership Office in Nigeria, Dr. Gloria Ahmed, stated that her team was on an advocacy visit to the ICPC ahead of the implementation of the 3rd National Action Plan.
“Open Government Partnership is an international, multi-stakeholder, multi-lateral, multi-sectoral initiative with focus on transparency, accountability, citizens participation and responsiveness to peoples’ needs through technology and innovation.
“Ahead of the implementation of the 3rd Action Plan, we are paying advocacy visits to MDAs who have critical roles to play in its implementation. Your agency falls under the fiscal transparency thematic area and specifically on phase 3 and 9 of the draft National Action Plan.”
She said so far, Nigeria has implemented two (2) action plans with the second one ending in August 2022 and that there has been a draft of the 3rd Action Plan which was still undergoing public consultations.
“We have drafted the 3rd Action Plan which is still undergoing public consultations, hopefully, Mr. President will sign it into law and implementation will commence in January” she said.