TheCable

The Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says 98 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) did not present their financial reports to the office of the accountant-general in 2023.

In a report released on Tuesday titled “Ethics and compliance scorecard of MDAs of the federal government of Nigeria 2023”,  the ICPC outlined numerous findings of an analysis conducted on the activities of MDAs.

According to the report, 368 MDAs spread across the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory (FCT) were examined during the exercise.

The commission said most compliant agencies have well-structured ethics and compliance programmes and policies.

The agency added that financial and self-funding agencies have structures that promote accountability and ethical standards within their organisations.

“Ninety-seven MDAs (26.36%) did not conduct annual needs assessments preparatory to procurement in compliance with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 while 59 MDAs (16.03%) did not have annual procurement plans in line with their approved annual budgets,” the report revealed.

“Eighty-five MDAs (23.10%) did not have guidelines for granting advances to staff, 67 MDAs (18.21%) did not make retirements on advances when due, while 88 MDAs (23.91%) did not ensure personnel retired advances before granting fresh ones.

“This is a huge corruption vulnerability as advances remain one of the conduit pipes through which funds are diverted.”

The report showed that 299 MDAs did not encourage systems study and corruption risk assessment while 33 did not implement the recommendations from such studies.

“Twenty-eight MDAs (7.61%) did not have instruments for the establishment of their governing boards or council, while 104 MDAs (28.26% did not have boards or oversights in place,” the report indicated.

“One hundred and sixty-two MDAs (44.02%), 240 MDAs (65.22%), and 292 MDAs (79.35%) respectively did not have Code of Ethics for board members; no capacity development training for board members; and no system for the organization to conduct periodic assessment for board members.”

The agency further said 119 MDAs did not have a strategic plan, which determines the organisation’s direction, allocation of resources required and evaluation of processes.

In the report, 166 MDAs were revealed as not having monitoring systems and did not conduct monitoring and evaluation of their activities, programmes and projects for the year reviewed.

Also, the ICPC said 91 MDAs did not have anti-corruption and transparency units (ACTU).

RECOMMENDATIONS

In the report, the ICPC recommended that the attorney general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice should institute urgent measures to ensure that public bodies without establishment statutes have relevant legislation enacted for the legitimacy of their existence and operations.

The commission also recommended that the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) should advise the president on the need to inaugurate boards of statutory institutions to guide, lead and manage MDAs.

“The Secretary to the Government of the Federation should enhance enforcement of the statutory provisions on rendering periodic and annual audited reports by MDAs to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) and the Public Account Committee (PAC of the National Assembly by swiftly prescribed commensurate sanctions in the applicable law,” ICPC said.

“The Chief Executive Officers of MDAs should ensure the production and implementation of Strategic Plans, conducting System Study and Review and Corruption Risk Assessment to assist in institutionalizing integrity, accountability and appropriate preventive measures to diminish and mitigate corruption.

“The SGF and the Head of Service should spare head the collaboration between the ICPC and the MDAs on the oversight of ACTUs and other anti-corruption mechanisms in MDAs, particularly ensuring compliance to Government Circulars on Establishment, Management and Funding of ACTUs and other internal anti-corruption mechanisms in public bodies.”