The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Transparency

  • NLC seeks transparency in police recruitment

    NLC seeks transparency in police recruitment

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called for transparency in the police recruitment approved by the Federal Government. Ten thousand are to be recruited in the exercise.

    NLC President Ayuba Wabba said the recruitment would also help reduce employment in the country.

    “We appeal to the police authorities and other Nigerians in the position of authority to conduct this  exercise with all sense of responsibility, care, transparency, justice, equity and minimum discomfort or pain to the applicants.  There is hardly any family that does not have an army of applicants. This, however, should be no justification for subjecting this process to a selfish end or abuse,” he said.

    He urged the government to ensure that other sectors become vibrant to employ workers.

    In another development, the NLC has praised the National Assembly and President Muhammadu  Buhari for the “rigorous scrutiny” of the 2016 budget.

    In a statement, Wabba hailed the National Assembly for exposing the imperfections in the budget and  President Buhari for his courage in exposing the padding of the budget by a cabal.

    Wabba said it was within the power of President to withhold his assent until the National Assembly sends the details to him.

    He said: “It is within the province of Mr President to do so as a matter of personal style or principle. More over, we have had a presidential precedent. But beyond all this, it is pertinent to note that, the right of due diligence which the National Assembly exercised to the hilt and led to the unearthing of discrepancies in the budget should similarly be extended to Mr President’’.

  • ‘NNPC, subsidiaries must adopt financial controls, transparency’

    ‘NNPC, subsidiaries must adopt financial controls, transparency’

    The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) has advised the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to adopt proper financial controls, transparency measures in all of its subsidiaries, if it intends to be profitable.

    The Institute in a report said despite the current global low oil prices, the Corporation could still net several billions of dollars per year for the nation’s treasury if it follows certain standard operational steps in its reforms.

    It said the government must first put in place a clear, legally enforceable rule that will govern revenues the NNPC can keep, adding that previous efforts at reforming and restructuring the NNPC did not follow this step.

    The NNPC must adopt new financial controls and transparency measures for its subsidiaries. This will apply not only to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), but equally to the Corporation’s half-dozen oil trading subsidiaries, none of which the Institute disclosed what they earn or how they share earnings.

    The group said there is no public accounting for the money that NNPC’s downstream arm, the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), makes from selling refined products including the billions of dollars in gasoline imported each year through oil-for-product swaps

    In the NRGI report made available to The Nation, the Director, Governance Programmes, Alexandra Gillies said the domestic crude allocation should be eliminated by the government, and agree to a new way of supplying oil to the refineries as part of its efforts to find new ownership and management structures for them. She noted that NNPC could remain the largest or even sole supplier under several different models.

    These include tolling, where the NNPC would grant the refineries operational independence and lease refining capacity from them in exchange for crude; repurchase agreements, where the Corporation would buy crude from its upstream partners on behalf of the refineries; or further inter-company sales, with volumes restricted at the refineries’ actual needs instead of 445,000 barrels per day – an amount she said far exceeded the small volumes (often under 100,000 bpd) they can process.

    She said if the NNPC continues to do oil-for-product swaps; it could simply allocate parts of its regular export sales to those deals.

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu had announced the unbundling or restructuring of the Corporation into  seven divisions and 30 independent companies with their own managing directors. Gillies agreed it was a step toward turning NNPC into a more appropriately-sized, profit-driven firm, but nevertheless pointed out the proposal did not explain how the new companies would fund their operations or share their earnings with the government.

    She said such a rule was also missing from the current plans to break the long delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into smaller pieces for passage, adding drafts of a first, senate-led installment were already making the rounds. However, senate leadership said debate would start soon.

    She noted the new bill envisions an NNPC split into two partially privatized companies: the Nigeria Petroleum Assets Management Company and a national oil company. She said the latest drafts talk variously about these entities retaining unspecified shares of earnings, charging the government ‘management fees,’ receiving federal budget appropriations to cover some un-enumerated costs, and paying dividends to the Federation Account based on policies to be agreed down the road.

  • TUC calls for transparency in Rivers election

    The Trade Union Congress (TUC), Rivers State chapter has called for transparency in the re-run legislative elections coming up tomorrow.

    In a statement, TUC Chairman,  Rivers State chapter, Comrade  Hyginus Chika Onuegbu, urged eligible voters to come out and vote for candidates of their choice.

    Onuegbu said  the Inspector-General of Police, the Director-General of Directorate State Security and Service Chiefs of the Armed Forces should provide adequate security to ensure  free and fair re-run elections, adding that no voter, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) personnel or accredited election observer should be intimidated, hurt or killed.

    “By now, we expect that the security agencies working in collaboration with the INEC should have their election security strategy that cover all phases of the electoral process and aimed at protecting electoral integrity. It is important to state clearly that the greatest threat to the Rivers State re-run elections is insecurity, as many of our people are scared going by the level of insecurity in the state.

    “The INEC as the umpire must ensure that the elections are free, fair and credible. It is important that election materials arrive early to the polling stations, so that voting and accreditation can be completed on time in line with the guidelines for the elections,” he said.

    Onuegbu said the youth should shun  violence and embrace peace, adding that political parties and their candidates should work towards safe and peaceful re-run elections.

    “Once again, we appeal to all Rivers people, especially the youth to embrace peace and shun all acts of violence. Indeed, acts of violence of whatever kind should be frowned upon by all and strictly shunned and punished collectively as it diminishes our democratic culture and whittles down the remaining collective respect we have as a people and as a state,’’ he added.

  • CNPP urges transparency in NNPC probe

    CNPP urges transparency in NNPC probe

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has urged the Federal Government to ensure transparency and probity in the on-going probe of the past financial transactions of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

    The CNPP in a statement by its Secretary General, Chief, Willy Ezugwu, in Abuja, Monday, said that the reforms being introduced by the Minister of State/Group Managing Director of the corporation, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has exposed the activities of the cabals who had held the oil sector hostage.

    According to the statement, Ezugwu said that the best gift the President had brought to the table in recent times was the appointment of a non-partisan professional and technocrat, Kachikwu as the minister of state GMD of the corporation.
    ‎
    The organization warned that it was aware of moves by some cabal to blackmail the minister and continue business as usual.

    It warned that Nigerians were ready to defend the minister in his attempt to sanitize the sector.

    The CNPP maintained that Nigerians now had hope in the leadership of the oil sector that had seen some positive and masses oriented reforms in the last few days and thereby warned that the upcoming probe by the government should not be politicized for any reason.

    “CNPP is aware that the worst set of dangerous black marketers in the world exist within the NNPC as oil cabal and this is to sound a warning to them that Nigerians will not tolerate any unwarranted attack under any guise by these agents of darkness to either bring the corporation down or pull the government down on its people oriented leadership,” the statement read.
    ‎
    He said Kachukwu had proven to be interested in probity and transparency of every single Kobo that the country earns from crude oil, adding that “we would encourage him to keep his books open and allow Nigerians to face the cabal while himself and the President are allowed to concentrate.”

    He urged Kachikwu to be courageous, saying he has the support of Nigerians.

  • Budget transparency

    •We still have a long way to go

    The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) in Nigeria lately unveiled the first-ever bench marking and comparative assessment of fiscal responsibility across ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) for the purpose of promoting fiscal discipline to curb corruption.  For instance, the index showed striking information that out of the 16 MDAs the survey covered from 2011-2013, nine were below the index minimum benchmark. This, of course, shows that their performances, including those of nine MDAs, were below expectations.

    The Fiscal Responsibility Index, developed from inputs from different society groups, professional associations and government agencies, is a”flagship assessment of how the MDAs at the federal level have complied with the provisions of those laws, policies and regulations using the locally developed index.”  Thus, at the official public presentation of the commission’s report in Abuja, the acting chairman of the FRC, Victor Muruako, said that in terms of policy-based budgeting subsidy, the Federal Ministry of Works, followed by Trade and Investment, Mines and Steel, Power, Youth Development, Lands and Housing, Transport, Health, Women Affairs, Science and Technology, Aviation, Finance, Water Resources and Education, in that order, “applied policy-based budgeting”.

    Apart from this, Muruako pointed out evidence from the “sub-sector index” which looked at the “budget comprehensiveness and transparency” which shows that, apart from environment in the survey period, no other selected MDA crossed the benchmark line. This, in effect, means that these focal MDAs cannot be said to be budget comprehensiveness and transparency compliant.

    From all indications, the above findings were said to have corroborated the latest result of the country in the open budget of 2015 where Nigeria scores 24 out of 100 points (24%) in budget transparency. Furthermore, Muruako noted that, in terms of budget credibility, only one MDA (Aviation) scored higher than the benchmark during the study period.  Also, on budget implementation, monitoring and evaluation, the result showed that apart from Agriculture, Lands and Housing, and Youth Development, other MDAs scored below the index benchmark.  However, it is interesting to note that in the sub-index benchmark of accounting, recording, reporting and external auditing, most MDAs scored above the index benchmark. According to Muruako, the index is set to achieve, among other things, the application of “a domestic framework of indicators and assessing the level of fiscal prudence across Federal MDAs…”

    The operation of the FRC is very important for any budget to succeed.  There is so much opacity in the budgeting process in the country. A good example is the National Assembly which should carry out its oversight functions making its own budget a closed book to the public.  The lawmakers simply approbate and reprobate at the same time. One way by which budget transparency could be ensured and achieved is for auditors to do their work. Unfortunately, not all MDAs cooperate; they refuse to subject their books to auditors for scrutiny, thus giving a leeway for official corruption in the system.

    Even when the auditors do their work, the reports only gather dust at the National Assembly where the lawmakers seem not interested in working on them. Perhaps the way out is for the auditors to make their reports public.

  • Why C/River led in budget transparency survey

    Not surprisingly, Nigeria’s material circumstance fell due for appraisal as the Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC Nigeria), a consortium of civil society organizations in conjunction with the Department of International Development (DFID), presented its annual states budget transparency survey for 2015. The event which took place in Abuja penultimate week attracted the creme de la creme of the civil society, the public and the media. The report which focuses on the debilities in our budgetary system is a stark confirmation to Nigerians long confounded by the apparent discontinuities between official avowals and performance among Nigeria’s 36 states in 2014. According to CIRDDOC’s Executive Director, Oby Nwankwo, the Nigeria Sub-national Budget Transparency Survey 2015 was inspired by their partners and their works and hoped that the survey, in turn, would contribute to the impact of their initiatives and advance budget transparency in the states surveyed and the country at large.

    As the report noted, budget translates policies into programmes, such as those meant to provide vaccinations, textbooks in schools, and subsidies to farmers. In a contractual economic environment, budget transparency and participation are therefore essential to ensuring that the allocation of public funds is prioritized to reflect the needs of the public. Due to Nigeria’s centripetal fiscal arrangement, state governments have had the onerous task of prioritizing the allocation of scarce resources. Since states and local governments are closest in proximity to the people, the need for an open, transparent, and participatory budget and procurement process is critical to ending the misappropriation of public funds that could be used for development purposes.

    Unfortunately, the finding of the State Budget Transparency Survey 2015 is that the state budget transparency is deplorable. The report finds that in most of the states surveyed, the public does not have access to comprehensive and timely information needed to participate meaningfully in the budget process and to hold government accountable. The report frowns at this lack of transparency which, according to it, encourages inappropriate, wasteful and corrupt spending, and because it shuts the public out of decision making, it reduces the legitimacy and impact of anti-poverty initiatives. A state’s score and placement within a performance category is determined by averaging the responses to 51 questions on the State Budget Transparency Questionnaire related to information contained in the eight key budget documents that all states are required to make available to the public.

    In the end, the State Budget Transparency Index 2015 reported that over half of Nigerian states failed to provide adequate budget information to the public, opportunities for public involvement throughout the budget process, and publicly available information on the procurement process. According to the report, only Cross River, Ekiti and Lagos states under their immediate past governors scored above 50 per cent on the State Budget Transparency Index, meaning that, on the average, they published more than half of the eight key budget documents, they held consultations to provide inputs in budget formulation and public hearings on the budget, and they published bidding documentation and awards on procurement projects. Whereas Cross River led the pack of winners in the overall transparency index, Ekiti led in the provision of documents. On the assumed average, Cross River State took overall best position with 77 per cent score.

    It was another memorable outing for Cross River State whose mention of its immediate past governor Senator Liyel Imoke conjures up excellence as an elated Imoke was invited to the podium to explain his magic wand amid spontaneous ovations from the cheering audience as the occasion was beamed by the national media. This is not the first time the state is leading the pack among the 36 states. In 2010, Bekwara and Obubra local governments in Cross River State were scripted in gold on the global medical map when they recorded a zero infant/maternal mortality rate, thus attracting recognition by the United Nations, earning the state an award for meeting the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. Again, in 2013, the United Nations Development Project for Africa (UNDP Africa) declared Cross River State the best governed state in Nigeria. In the same (2013), the state won the Bill Gates Award for Polio Eradication. The Imoke administration also attracted a private sector giant, the United States-based General Electric, which is building its factory in Calabar and investing over a billion dollars in the state because of the investor-friendly policy of the state government under Imoke. The saying that adversity introduces a man to himself cannot be more apt as applied to Cross River State. Since the ceding of its 76 oil wells to Akwa Ibom State in 2008 thus removing it from the list of littoral states in the country, the Imoke-led administration resorted to prudent management of its scarce resources and transparency, as a survivalist strategy.

    This earned the former governor the appellation of “Mr. Due Process”. Relying wholly on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and the small allocation from the Federation Account, and without Derivation Fund, Imoke attacked excruciating poverty and underdevelopment head on in the state. While it is impossible to articulate the cumulative magnitude of his eight year developmental strides in one piece, this may actually be a factual aid to construe Imoke’s staggering achievements in Cross River State. Besides asphalting a network of more than 1,000 kilometres well developed, closely knit roads across the state, his government gave a face-lift to education. To accentuate his priority to education, not only did he build and renovate several schools across the state, he re-introduced scholarship awards for indigenes of the state to study at home and abroad. An attempt to encode some of his projects would definitely not exclude the inimitable ones among the lot. Urban and rural roads, Airport Bye-pass, Urban and rural Water Scheme, Tinapa Knowledge City, Monorail, the first fly-over in Calabar, Smartgov and Electronic Citizen Identification Scheme, easily come to mind.

    Others include: International Convention Centre cited by CNN as one of the three architectural wonders in Africa, International Specialist Hospital, International Golf Course, the Songhai Farm Project, Model Schools, Port-side Industrial Park, Housing Estates, Mother & Child Free Healthcare Programme, GIS and Land Registration Reform, etcetera. The Imoke administration had placed the Annual Calabar Carnival on global annual tourism calendar. What is more, the transformation of the rural economy through lifting road access restrictions to rural entrepreneurial potentials remains legendary. Add to this, the transformation of the system of governance into the new digital age for efficiency and attainment of the optimum in the aggregation of potential revenue resources of the state, excluding oil.

    Above all, the establishment of strategic assets across sectors, namely: healthcare, education, agriculture, electrification, water, urban and rural transportation to regenerate the rural-urban economy, among others. Yet, this miracle cannot be divorced from Imoke’s strategic templates which included a creative facilitation of the flow of private investor money into the state’s unproductive assets to make them operational thereby lifting the state’s tourism economy. In fact, Imoke’s capacity for prudent husbandry of scarce resources was a mystery yet to be unravelled. The state’s star-like outing at the states budget transparency survey is therefore not a surprise.

    • Orjiakor is an Abuja-based public policy analyst.

  • Transparency, corruption and governance

    Given  the charming disposition, body  language  and warm smiles on our President‘s face as he receives reports from Federal Permanent Secretaries delegations in  Abuja recently, there  is no doubt  that he is  more at ease with civil  servants in governance  than politicians. That  to  me is an obvious  fact and has nothing to do  with the fact that he has not chosen his cabinet yet. Given his background and the fact that he served as a military  head of state before you  can  say  that is to  be  expected.

    For  a man  with a proven reputation for integrity  you  can even  concede that given the financial  mess he found on the ground on being elected he would  rather know the true state  of affairs  from the Permanent  Secretaries who as the Chief Administrative Officers in the Ministries are  also the bona  fide Chief  Executive  Officers in our public  service. The  danger  however  is that this  same set  of  Permanent  Secretaries  served the last government  that looted our treasury  very  diligently  and  cannot  like  Pontius  Pilate  was  their hands clean  of the looting  and rape of our  economy which the last  administration did  so  maliciously  and  majestically. Even  with  great impunity  as if tomorrow  will never come and detection  of such abysmal  crimes will never arise.

    My  contention  here is that transparency  is an inherent part  of the fight against corruption  and the present bunch  of Permanent  Secretaries  are just  incapable  of  it. Their  reports  should ipso  facto  be taken with  a pinch of salt by the president as they  cannot claim ignorance  of the various breaches of due processes that resulted  in the abysmal looting of our treasury. This has so much astounded  and  astonished  the president that he had  to cry out on the magnitude of the embezzlement  for all Nigerians to know and to assure them that he will not do much else until the culprits  have  been apprehended  and brought  to book. A    decision  which  has the approbation of all  Nigerians except the  looters,  their cronies, stooges and  beneficiaries  of their  atrocities.

    Ironically   and  unbelievably,  a  public  servant  like these permanent  secretaries blazed  a trail on transparency in public service  in  Nigeria this last week  and that person is a Nigerian. That person is  Amina  Zakari  the Acting Chairman  of  INEC, a lady  after my heart,  with  no romance intended,  but who by her revelations on the last 2015 elections  was a lesson  in vintage transparency   of   the type our president should look  out for  and reward  in his  lofty   and famous  tussle with corruption  in  our polity.  Zakari,  under attack  by the opposition PDP  not  to be confirmed as INEC boss  for  being purportedly  a relation of the president  went about her duty with great   aplomb  and candor.  She    announced that as at  now even after  the last 2015   elections, 10 m  voters  cards  have  not been collected by  registered  voters.  Which confirms  that INEC  disenfranchised 10 m  Nigerians  for  no just  cause   even  after  the postponement   and the Jega  affirmed  state  of readiness. This  fact  was  never revealed  by her former  boss  and  her  known    penchant for   truth  and frankness   must  have dissuaded her former  boss from recommending her as his    successor, as  he   chose someone else  before the  president  announced Zakari’s  name and Jega’s  choice  had  to go into limbo.

    Now  Zakari  has defined her  relationship with the president and debunked the in law issue. She  even  announced that some  44, 000 voters cards were  not delivered  at  all.  That  to  me is transparency  in the face of all odds and  regardless  of whose ox  is gored  including herself as INEC  boss. It  is such  a person that  all Nigerians should wish  to conduct  elections knowing that she  will say  the truth on the state of readiness  to conduct a free and fair elections and  receive wide  credibility in saying so.  That  really  is the catalyst   for  a real  democracy  as elections  are the engine  room of  any  viable and vibrant  democracy.

    Transparency  was on display  too at our legislature  this last week  but  it was  of a very disturbing type. The news  was that  our  Senators  and Representatives have shared N12.9bn in two months whereas  they  have not passed any bill  since they  opened  shop on June 9  and shocked  the nation  and the majority  party in the nation and legislature with a bizarre leadership election which the Police has now confirmed was   enacted  with  bent house rules. According to media reports the  109  Senators  got  N 36.4 m  each  and  the 360  members  of the House  of  Representatives  got N25m  each. While  one can commend  the legislators  for being transparent  in making their allowances  and emoluments  public one  cannot  but recoil in disgust  and annoyance  at  the huge amount  the legislators  are  paying  themselves. It  is even  more odious to recall  that they have rejected  a plea  by a Committee they set up in house  to review these same emoluments down wards. This  is a legislature that over the years have acquired  the dubious reputation of holding the executive by the jugular  over its  constitutional  duty of approving the budget. The  Nigerian legislature is noted  for asking the executive to jack up its budget to accommodate the  allowances of legislators and add it to the budget before approving. Whereas the duty of a worthwhile and really honorable  house is to cut national and budget costs  to  have a productive  and salutary  deficit. I  am  sure that when the budget is presented the legislators  will still  repeat the same chicanery  in spite  of what they have done just two  months  into their  tenure.

    It  is  necessary  to let  the legislators  know  that they are the elected representatives  of  the  Nigerian  nation and  people  to whom  they  are  accountable  every time and day  and not just at election time. Nigerians  are  hurting and are pained  by  the huge  and unrealistic amounts  our legislators are paying  themselves as if they live on the moon  and are not fellow Nigerians like those unfortunate enough to have elected them but whose   trust  they have now  betrayed by the amounts  they are paying themselves  for elective offices.

    They  should  know that they  do  not live in a vacuum and that their  present disposition is bound  to have serious repercussion given the present socio economic living conditions  of those  who elected them which are  quite harrowing as most live on subsistence  level. Meaning most  Nigerians live from  hand  to  mouth  and cannot comprehend why those they have just elected  can be earning over N20m  in  just   two  months after being elected to make laws which they  have  not found time to make. Certainly  the legislators  need to know that with such  emoluments in the midst  of so much  suffering they are virtually  getting away with  murder. For  how long they can do that is a matter  of conjecture and I  will  illustrate   from a childhood cartoon, with what  a Red  Indian Chief  told an American Officer in charge of the Indian Reservation Camp where the Officer  was  stealing the meat meant for the Indians and  giving them rotten meat instead. The Indian Chief  told the officer named Lang. ‘Believe  me Lang, my patience  grows thin. This rotten  carrion I  will  not  give to a dog. If  my people should  rise against  you in their  anger, it  were better that you and your kind had  never  been born. ‘A word  I think  is enough  for the  wise on this high legislators allowances and emoluments.   Again, long  live the Federal  Republic  of Nigeria.

  • Peterside hails NNPC’s transparency agenda

    Peterside hails NNPC’s transparency agenda

    All Progressives Congress (APC) Rivers State governorship candidate Dr Dakuku Peterside has praised the new management team of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), headed by Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for promising a monthly publication of the corporation’s account.

    Peterside, who was a former chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources, Downstream, said the corporation’s promise to open its books could not have come at a better time, given revelations of tardiness and impunity at the corporation.

    “The new policy on transparency and due process by the NNPC has renewed hopes that Nigeria has all it takes to run a world-class company. This is most encouraging.

    “No country or organisation can make any meaningful progress in an atmosphere of chaos and inconsistencies; vices, many believe, had pervaded the NNPC for many years.  Transparency in every organisation is key because it helps in measuring growth.

    “I am happy that the troubled corporation is living up to public expectation in line with the new change mantra of the APC–led government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    ‘’I praise those behind these new initiatives, as the new ideas have can reposition the NNPC, if well implemented.

    “But the drivers of this new vision should take a step further towards comprehensive reforms, especially with regard to business models. They should examine critically the corporation’s inherent contradictions essentially in the area of being a player and regulator, all at the same time.

    “Steps should also be taken to get NNPC quoted on the stock exchange so that it can run properly as a viable commercial entity.

    ‘’This is the only way to turn around the fortunes of the NNPC”.

  • Institute advocates transparency

    Institute advocates transparency

    The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) has advocated transparency in corporate governance.

    ICSAN Chairman Bode Ayeku spoke yesterday when he led a delegation to Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation.

    He said keeping public and private records open would curb fraud.

    Ayeku said the visit was to intimate the media of its annual conference and awards in September, with the theme: Disclosure and Transparency: A Paradigm Shift in Corporate Nigeria.

    He said: “We had failures of big organisations in the past because things were not properly done. In view of the move by the regulatory authorities to correct some past wrongs, we have partnered with them.

    “For instance, we had some banks, which disappeared with peoples’ money and send them to their early graves. We support the new initiative to have a new code of corporate governance. It is for this reason that we are having the annual conference.

    “Basically, the emphasis is on companies, and you have people, who are directors, expected to manage the companies, expected to manage the companies on your behalf, if you are not there, the only way you can have an idea of what is happening is through disclosure. That is why it is necessary there must be a full disclosure of information.”

    He said to be transparent was to put everything on the table to clear areas of doubt.

    “That aligns with the current development of the financial reporting council and in respect of the new national code.”

    Ayeku maintained that corporate management must be fluid to enable fresh people inject new ideas into organisations.

    “This will ensure that we plug all loopholes. This will ensure things are done transparently in the interest of stakeholders and the economy.

    “Under this new code, the corporate governance that is being worked on, for the first time we are having duality of audit committees, performing almost the same duties. It is meant to look at the pros and cons.

    ‘’Though there is the need to avoid duplication, the coming conference will look at the whole gamut and take a decision in the interest of the country.”

    He added that it was important for an independent body to have a critical look at performances by corporate organisations, to determine if they were doing what was expected.

    “The current practice when corporate bodies praise themselves is out of place, this should fall within the purview of an independent body. And when you claim to be good, it is relative.

    “We are looking at the opportunities available to the chartered secretaries in the corporate governance. In other countries, their roles have been specifically spelt out. Chartered secretaries are auditors of corporate governance.

    “The good thing about the coming conference is that the whole Nigerians will be involved, that is from the regulatory authorities to the operators and all relevant stakeholders will be involved.”

    He said some people misunderstand the job of company secretaries for typists, noting that the duties of the secretaries are to ensure that the laws of the companies are complied with.

    “By virtue of that, you cannot say you have corporate governance, when you fail to comply with the laid down laws. So, we are custodians of corporate governance and we ensure its administration.”

     

  • NNPC probe ‘ll bring transparency, says Peterside

    NNPC probe ‘ll bring transparency, says Peterside

    Former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State Dr Peterside Dakuku has said the probe of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will promote transparency and good governance.

    Peterside, who spoke to reporters in Benin City at the weekend, said probity was a continuous process in governance.

    He noted that there would be no attraction for transparency and probity if people were not made to face some consequences.

    Peterside called for police reforms because the use of any alternative to provide security would be a disaster.

    He said:  “The Police did their best of to provide us security during our campaigns. There are areas where they failed too, even areas where they were accessories to crimes and some of the things that happened.”

    “What is the alternative to police protection which is self help. That self help means patronising criminals. I will never patronise criminals. We will continue to patronise the police. We will rather ask for reforms. They should restrategise and be provided better equipment because the alternative is disaster for us.”