Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN, has said that the Public Service Integrity Award organized by the Commission was aimed at encouraging hard work and integrity in the public service.
Professor Owasanoye said this through the Commission’s Spokesperson, Mrs. Azuka Ogugua, during an interview session with the Nigeria Assembly News at the Commission’s headquarters recently.
The ICPC Chairman noted that two serving public servants at the federal level who had shown exceptional acts of integrity in the course of their official duty were identified, honoured and given cash rewards of N2.5m each.
In his response to the rate of compliance of ICPC to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011, he affirmed that the Commission is one hundred percent compliant. He further explained that in the bid to make information readily available to the public, the Commission has a dedicated segment on FOI on its website, www.icpc.gov.ng.
The Chairman also said that ICPC proactively discloses information by displaying its annual reportsand procurement information on the website. He added that the FOI request form on the website is easy to access while noting that ICPC replies all requests to the Commission.
“Staff have been trained on the FOI Act. The desk officers’ contact details are also displayed on the Commission’s website”, he said.
In his comments on how the tripartite mandate of enforcement, prevention, education and mobilization duties had fared from inception, the ICPC recountedthe achievements of the Commission, noting that ICPC has recorded many convictions, recovered and seized assets worth billions of naira.
Still on achievements, the Chairman revealed that the Commission has successfully tracked 564 Constituency and 269 Executive projects. He noted that while 445 ACTUs have been established across the MDAs in the country, 47 SSR have been conducted in some MDAs and directives issued for them to correct areas prone to corruption.
He also said that the Commission has “conducted Corruption Risk Assessments in Ports, Aviation, Ministry of Water Resources, Education and Health, and E-Government platforms of government”.
“We have affected port agencies positively resulting in the development of a grievance management mechanism called Ports Service Support Portal (PSSP), and the Nigerian Ports Process Manual” he added.
Other initiatives by the Commission aimed at diminishing corruption according to the ICPC Chairman include the National Values Curriculum (NVC), National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP), National Anti-Corruption Coalition (NACC) for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Students Anti-Corruption Clubs (SAC) for secondary schools, and Students Anti-Corruption Vanguard (SAV) for tertiary institutions.
Speaking about how the 2003 revocation of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 (CPOROA), by the 6th National Assembly affected the gains of the Commission, the ICPC Chairman categorically stated that the revocation did not stand therefore, it did not have any effect to the growth or gains of the Commission.