Group advocates transfer of CCT from presidency to judiciary – TheNigerialawyer

A civil society group, the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, on
Wednesday proposed the transfer of the Code of Conduct Tribunal
from the executive arm of government to the judiciary.

The group also proposed granting members of the public access to
the asset declaration forms submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau
by public officers.

These formed part of the CSLS’ proposed reforms in the criminal
justice sector which it unveiled in Abuja.

The proposals were unveiled at the two-day ‘National Workshop on
the Reform of the Criminal/Codes and the Code of Conduct Bureau and
Tribunal Act and the Provisions of the Constitution pertaining to
the Code of Conduct for Public Officers’, organised by the
CSLS.

The project, funded by MacArthur Foundation, brought together
stakeholders from the civil society and various agencies of
government, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
Office of the Head of Service, the Code of Conduct Bureau, the CCT,
and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences
Commission.

The organiser of the event, which started on Wednesday and will
end on Thursday, seeks the stakeholders’ inputs and eventual
ratification of its draft bills on the Criminal/Codes and the Code
of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and the relevant provisions of
the Constitution to prevent graft.

In his opening remark on Wednesday, the CSLS President, Prof.
Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), regretted that there had been no
improvement in the Code of Conduct for Public Officers introduced
into the Constitution in 1979 by the then military regime, adding
that the code had remained substantially the same in the later
promulgated 1999 Constitution as it was under the 1979
Constitution.

He faulted “the highly centralised structure of the Code of
Conduct Bureau and Tribunal; and the placement of the bureau and
tribunal under the executive” as contained in the 1999
Constitution.

He also faulted what he described as “the inadequate provisions
for asset declaration, verification and public access,” noting that
it undermined the effectiveness of the code of conduct system as a
machinery for preventing corruption and promoting accountability
and transparency.

A bill proposed by the group now seeks the input of the National
Judicial Council in the appointment and removal of the CCT chairman
and the members.

It also seeks to raise the number of members of the tribunal
from three to 110 to enable the tribunal to sit in threes in the 36
states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

The group by its other bill seeks to harmonise the “substantive
criminal laws embodied in the Penal Code (applicable in the
Northern states) and the Criminal Code (applicable in the Southern
states)” to bring them to conformity with the Administration of
Criminal Justice Act.

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