Sagay: Poor information,
Sagay: Poor information, intelligence sharing among
agencies hurting anti-graft war
The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committe Against Corruption
(PACAC), Prof. Itsay Sagay, has decried poor collaboration
especially in the area of information sharing among anti-corruption
and security agencies saying it is weakening the fight against
corruption in Nigeria.
Sagay stated this on Tuesday at a one-day workshop on
strengthening anti-corruption agenda by PACAC in collaboration with
Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and supported by the
MacArthur foundation in Abuja.
He said the the platform for information and intelligence
sharing needs to be built on as absence of such has been hurting
the war against corruption in Nigeria.
The PACAC Chairman said he has been observed that information at
the disposal of various intelligence units in the country are not
shared in a systematic and pragmatic manner to assist the fight
against corruption and other related security threats.
According to him, corruption is the reason for the massive
unemployment, unequipped clinics, wretches schools, bad roads and
consequently the cause of deaths on roads, hospitals, kidnapping,
robbery amongst others.
Sagay recalled that the 2007 and 2013 looting by public
officials and business men which came to N1.35 trillion is enough
to build new roads, hospitals, schools, and power electricity in
parts of the country.
He said: “One-third of the stolen funds could have provided
635.18kilometre of roads, 36 ultra modern hospitals per state, 183
schools, educated 3,974 children from primary to tertiary level at
25.24 milluon per child and built 20,062 units of 2-bedroom
houses”.
He reiterated the call on the National Assembly to pass an
intelligence reform bill into law too provide an Inter Agency
Coordinating Group (IACG) platform for the sharing of corruption,
terrorism aand other serious crimes intelligence.
“This platform will engender partnerships among all levels of
government involbed in the fight against corruption and other
related offences”, he said.
Sagay also recommended that whistle blowing be strengthened. He
said there should be a graduates scale of reward for maximum of 5
percent for relatively small recoveries to .5 percent for very
large recoveries.
He however, harped that the fight against corruption is a
collaborative efforts that list involve the participation of every
Nigerians diwn to the grassroot level and should not be left for
ant-graft agencies alone.
Speaking, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation
(SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, lamented that despite successes recorded
in the anti-corruption war there is still much to be done.
Mustapha said lingering corrupt acts are coordinated with
complicity from public officials.
The SGF who was represented by Mrs. Amina Mohammed, therefore
tasked participants at the session to analyse the role of the Audit
Departments and Units in aiding and abetting corruption in
MDAs.
He also tasked the Office of the Auditor-General to come up with
policies to empower auditors to halt payment that are in breach of
procurement Act, financial regulations and other laws.
“The fight against corruption will gain traction if in all cases
involving the prosecution of individuals and corporate entities ,
the editors that sanctioned such payments should be joined in trial
of such cases by the prosecution”.
The chairman, Senate Committe on Anti-corruption and Financial
crimes, Sen. Suleman Abdulkadir, on his part assured that the POCA
Bill which will aid the corruption fight will be given expedient
action.
He also said the senate through the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) is also reviewing other anti-corruption
legislations.