By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Assets declared by public servants should be published by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to roll back corruption, a disease that has eaten deep into the Nigerian fabric in both public and private lives.
This is the take of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Chairman, Bolaji Owasanoye, who bared his mind to CCB Chairman Mohammed Isah and board members at a meeting in Abuja.
Owasanoye said the secrecy that surrounds assets declaration enables corruption, insecurity, and underdevelopment.
In his view, “publicising asset declaration will assist the whistle-blowing policy and our work. We have not been able to take full advantage of assets declaration because of the opacity around it.
“If somebody lied about his or her assets, he or she can be found out by just the opening of the page where it has been published.
“I want to encourage the Bureau to push for that because the public will help us to do our work. They will tell us who owns what assets and whether it is proportionate to their earnings.”
Digitisation of assets declaration
Owasanoye advised the CCB to review the Assets Declaration Form to include information that helps trace assets such as BVN and new forms of investments such as cryptocurrency.
He urged the CCB to digitise assets declaration to help the tracing and analysis of assets as well as enable the CCB provide the government with information on the lifestyles of public servants.
“If you digitise assets declaration, it will help you to reach everybody under your cover. It is easily analytical and helps you to know what asset the public servant owns.
“It will enable you to inform the government about the status of public servants, whether they are doing badly or not.”
Owasanoye offered the forensic platforms of the ICPC to the CCB to help it with staff capacity building.
He expressed the hope that the CCB would be active in assets recovery, insisting that public servants who live beyond their legitimate income should have their illegally acquired assets confiscated.
Need for synergy between anti-graft agencies
Isah called for synergy between the anti-corruption agencies, noting that corruption cannot be tackled by one agency.
He stressed that “in the areas of overlapping functions, who starts investigation of a petition first should be allowed to conclude. The others should stop investigating the same matter to avoid wastage of resources.
“There is no need to over engage ourselves by doing the same thing.”
Isah reiterated the willingness of the CCB to share information on assets declaration with ICPC to aid its investigation.
He said tracking executive and constituency projects by the ICPC is laudable as it has taken out corruption and brought development closer to the public.
“The CEPTG is proactive in nature rather than reactive and it is helping the people. We look forward to copying from you.”