By Yusuf Alli, Abuja and Nsa Gill, Calabar
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Chairman Prof Bolaji Owasanoye on Tuesday said the anti-graft agency received 19,381 petitions in 20 years.
He said the commission successfully investigated about 5,000 of the petitions and prosecuted almost 1,000 cases.
But he said the agency secured convictions in about 20 per cent of the cases.
Owasanoye spoke during a two-day Africa Regional Webinar on Combating Corruption and Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in commemoration of ICPC’s 20th anniversary.
ICPC was established in June 2000 as the first anti-corruption agency by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Owasanoye said the ICPC was given a three-fold mandate to investigate and prosecute acts of corruption and prevent them by examining the systems.
He said: “Within the same period, we have conducted 47 System Study Reviews on public sector Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and five CRAs in different key sectors of the economy, including transport, education, health and the e-govemment system.
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“Furthermore, it has established 449 Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs) in MDAs, established the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN) as the training arm of the Commission, developed the National Values Curriculum being taught through different subjects at primary and post-primary levels in schools across Nigeria, trained 13,739 public servants at ACAN and opened 15 state offices across Nigeria with at least two offices in each geo-political zone.
“The Commission made input to the introduction and design of Bank Verification Number (BVN) by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and Bankers Committee and 1PPIS and GIFMIS to mention a few achievements.”
Owasanoye also said the commission has expanded its forensic capacity.
Director-General of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, Mr. Modibbo Hamman-Tukur said “Nigeria is far advanced and ahead of 55 or 56 African countries in tackling Illicit Financial Flows( IFF).
He said: “To fight IFF, it comes with a demand that at the government level, there must be regulations to engender transparency in government collections.
“For example, the Federal Government has 12 major sources of revenue, like crude oil and Gas sales, royalties, concessions, VAT and others. We need to work around these elements.”
Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) Chairman, Prof. Isa Mohammed said “rivalry among anti-corruption agencies is not what will help Nigeria”, adding: “We need to ensure that there are collaboration and information sharing.”
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