Executive Arm More Corrupt Than Legislature, Judiciary – ICPC Chairman
BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, has declared that the executive arm of government in Nigeria is more corrupt than the legislative and judicial arms.
This is just as he said that the legislative arm would continue to be branded corrupt by the public until it makes its yearly budget public, stressing that corruption remains the enemy of development and good governance.
Owasanoye, who stated these while delivering a lecture titled, ‘The legislature and fight against graft and corruption,’ at the 9th National Assembly Induction Programme for new legislators in Abuja, pointedly said that; “Corruption thrives more in the executive than the legislature and the judiciary.”
He based his assertion on the fact that the aggregate budgetary allocation to ministries, departments and agencies of government year by year was more than that of the legislative and judicial arms combined, thereby allowing corruption to thrive.
In his words; “Corruption in the executive is far more than the legislature and judiciary combined. This is because the executive spends a far bigger chunk of the money appropriated.”
Owasanoye also frowned at the way the National Assembly conduct its statutory oversight functions on the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), saying that requesting government departments and agencies to fund oversight is inappropriate.
He noted that by commercializing oversight function, its power has been rendered impotent, adding that in the same vein, the legislature is being accused of passing the cost to MDAs and of accepting other forms of gratification such as foreign travels, phony seminars, etc. to enable them look the other way.
Owasanoye berated the Federal Legislators for the secrecy surrounding their budget, stressing that the huge allowances due to them has increased in high proportion between 1999 and 2018 even when their number has not increased.
The Chairman of the ICPC also condemned the alleged outlandish allowances of members of National Assembly as well as the controversial constituency projects, adding that the public perception of legislators as being corrupt would not go away until the National Assembly throws open its yearly budget to the public.
Owasanoye noted that the execution of the budget of the National Assembly which has grown exponentially from N6.9bn in 1999 to about N139bn in 2018 for the same number of legislators has remained shrouded in secrecy thereby giving room for allegations of abuse and misappropriation of the funds.
He noted that Nigeria has the highest paid legislators representing the poorest people in the world, adding that since 1999, the National Assembly budget increased without defensible legal or moral justification.
According to him; “The public is hardly told the breakdown of the National Assembly budget and how it is used. The criticisms will disappear if we are told how it is spent.”
