… Urges NASS to accelerate passage of bill
An official of the Federal Ministry of Justice has said that in spite of the creation of anti-corruption and transparency units to aid whistleblowing in Federal Government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), most of the agencies are not keying into the policy.
The Executive Secretary, Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee in the Ministry, Mr Suleiman Dawodu, who stated this at a Radio Town Hall Meeting organized by the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) in collaboration with the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development (PRIMORG), on Friday in Abuja, pointedly said that he doubts the application and functionality of the anti-corruption units by the MDAs.
Dawodu therefore called on the National Assembly to expedite action in the passage of the Whistleblowing Bill before it.
Speaking on the challenges of institutionalizing whistleblowing in the public sector, Dawodu noted that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) established anti-corruption units within the MDAs, adding however that till date, most of them are yet to inaugurate their whistleblowing units.
He said that uncertainty and tussle for who will head the units was hampering the inauguration in many of the MDAs.
According to Dawodu; “From ICPC estimation, about 426 MDAs anti-corruption and transparency units have been established in the MDAs, but how effective are they? There are over 800 MDAs under the Federal Government in Nigeria”.
He further said that the reasons people are not willing to blow the whistle against corruption these days were due to lack of legal framework, political will, and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
In his words; “Only legislation can sustain whistleblowing in Nigeria. So, I urge the National Assembly at this point to pass the whistle-blowing bill that is currently before them. It has gone through first reading and I think there is a corresponding Interest Disclosure Bill as well.
“There are two versions of the bill which basically will decide whether you want to position it within an existing body like the Public Complaint Commission or you have a new body which is called the national office to manage that. I think that will go a long way in managing, protecting, and ensuring we have all this information coordinated and investigated through the referral process,” Dawodu advised.
On his part, an Assistant Director at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Paul Vianana said that the whistleblowing unit of FIRS is functional and has so far received about 15 complaints since it was established in 2016.
Vianana emphasized that the best way to fight corruption is by preventing it which the leadership of FIRS has resolved to see through.
He however, called on citizens not to relent in approaching FIRS to report tax leakages, tax evasion, or any other form of corruption as it concerns them with the assurance of protection of their identity and compensation.
Speaking in turn, the Executive Director, Integrity Organization, Soji Apampa lamented that citizens do not want to expose corruption or use public feedback mechanisms to report corruption these days owing to fear of retribution and apathy.
Apampa stressed that the nomenclature “whistleblower” puts anybody with the intention of blowing the whistle in danger and against society and therefore recommended a change of approach, innovations, and less apprehensive mechanisms in reporting corruption in the public and private sector, adding that Nigeria must adopt a holistic approach if it must build a society of integrity.
Also speaking, a Deputy Editor at Daily Trust Newspapers, Abdulazeez Abdulazeez, said that a very robust mechanism to strengthen whistleblowing will be a necessary tool to enable safe and secure reporting in public or private establishments, noting that one worrying development in Nigeria’s war against corruption is that citizens do not feel that public funds are theirs.
Abdulazeez noted that bureaucratic bottlenecks are also affecting the functionality of whistleblowing in government MDAsand called on Nigerians to change their orientation to understand that government funds are absolutely theirs.
