Lai Mohammed reels off administration's achievements on corruption.

…… Highlights include TSA,,IPPIS, PIA, Whistle blower, Assets Recovery, Financial Autonomy to separate arms

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has been speaking on the performance of the Buhari Government with highlights on major reforms and activities.

Delivering an address at a press conference on the administration’s fight against corruption in Abuja on Thursday, February 3, the Minister noted that although fighting corruption required slow and steady pace,yet the government has taken bold steps that have proven successful in tackling corruption.

In a -16 – paragraph text, the Minister captured successes so far recorded in the fight against corruption .

The text read in full;

Good afternoon gentlemen and happy new year, since this is our first
meeting this year. And as always, I thank you for honouring our
invitation.

As you are aware, one of the three major policy planks of this
Administration is the fight against corruption, with the others of
course being to tackle insecurity and also to revamp the economy. We
will be having a series of thematic press conferences on these issues
in the days ahead, with this one – on the fight against corruption –
being the first one.
It is common knowledge that one of the most difficult tasks for
any government is to fight corruption, because when you fight
corruption, corruption will fight you back! This explains why
naysayers have continued to belittle or dismiss the Administration’s
anti-corruption efforts. Let me say here that fighting corruption is a
marathon, and never a sprint. Also, investigations, arrests,
prosecutions and asset forfeiture – which are the immediate, visible
indices by which many measure success in tackling corruption,
constitute – as important as they are – just a part of the strategies
to combat corruption. There is also a more fundamental strategy, which
I will describe as structural and governance reforms or, if you like,
institutional reforms. Today’s press conference Nwill therefore look at
this fundamental strategy and also highlight the successes recorded in
recent times by the various anti-corruption agencies, including the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the
Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Code of Conduct
Bureau (CCB).
Gentlemen, the Buhari Administration has taken bold measures to
streamline cumbersome bureaucratic processes in the implementation of
government policies, check corrupt practices and ensure accountability
in the implementation as well as delivery of these policies. These
reforms are all inclusive, cutting across all spheres of governance
and not excluding even the private sector. They are the Treasury
Single Account (TSA), Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information
System (IPPIS), Petroleum Industry Act, Financial Autonomy for State
Legislature and Judiciary (2020), Whistle-Blower Policy, Assets
Recovery, Justice and Law reforms, Nigeria’s membership of the Open
Government Partnership as well as the various instruments at the
disposal of the Federal Government to track, trace and stop the flow
of illicit funds used in financing terrorist activities within
Nigeria, among others. For those who may say that some of these
reforms, like the TSA, predate this Administration, our response is
that what’s the use of a policy that is not implemented? This
Administration has implemented these reforms with fidelity, and the
reforms have made a huge impact in preventing corruption.
For example, upon assuming office in 2015, President Muhammadu
Buhari operationalized the TSA, a public accounting system that
enables the Government to manage its finances (revenues and payments)
using a single/unified account or a series of linked accounts
domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The President issued a
directive to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to close
their accounts with Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and transfer the funds
therein to the CBN on or before 15th September 2015. The TSA system
was launched in 2012 but failed to gain traction until President
Buhari gave it a fillip. The TSA system has now been implemented in
more than 90 percent of all Federal MDAs and it has resulted in the
consolidation of more than 17,000 bank accounts previously spread
across Deposit Money Banks in the country, and monthly savings of an
average of N4 billion in bank charges.
Also, against stiff opposition, the Buhari Administration has
expanded the coverage of IPPIS. TSA and IPPIS remain an unfolding
revolution in public finance in Nigeria that have incorporated
transparency and accountability into the system. The use of BVN to
verify the Federal Government’s payroll on the IPPIS platform has so
far led to the detection of 54,000 fraudulent payroll entries. The
Federal Government has also utilized the BVN system to verify
beneficiaries and vendors in the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), the
N-Power Programme and the Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP),
among others.
The Whistle-blower Policy is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning. The policy is meant to encourage the voluntary disclosure of information about fraud, bribery and looted government funds, including financial misconduct and any other form of corruption or theft. The Whistle Blower whose information leads to recovery is entitled to 2.5 to 5% from the recovered funds. Information and tips received are usually referred to the EFCC, ICPC, and NFIU for further painstaking investigation. The policy has helped in the cleansing of IPPIS, led to compliance on TSA and enhanced the Procurement Act 2007. As at 2020, a total sum of N700 billion has been recovered through the Whistle-Blower Policy.

8 Then, there is the Petroleum Industry Act (2021). As you are
aware, there has been a dire need for Nigeria to reform the laws of
its oil & gas sector, which accounts for 90% of its foreign exchange
earnings and about 65% of government’s revenue. While some of the laws
had become outdated and unsuited to the 21st century, some were simply
non-existent to regulate certain activities, thereby providing
loopholes to be exploited by corrupt practitioners. One of such is the
P&ID case in which a company registered in a foreign tax haven
colluded with corrupt officials over a set-to-fail gas processing
project to secure about $10 billion award against the Nigerian
government via an arbitration process abroad. Attempts to revamp
petroleum laws by successive governments proved futile for over 20
years until President Muhammadu Buhari broke the jinx to push through
the Petroleum Industry Act in 2021, through strong will and
determination.

Gentlemen, President Muhammadu Buhari signed an Executive Order in
May 2020 that unequivocally granted financial autonomy to State Houses
of Assembly, State Judiciaries as well as the Local Governments, as
the third tier of government. The order also mandated the
Accountant-General of the Federation to deduct, from source, funds due
to state legislatures and judiciaries from the monthly allocation of
states that fail to comply. Lack of financial autonomy for the
separate arms of government at the state level is a major structural
flaw that is in need of reform, and this has been addressed by the
Buhari Administration. Also, the financial suffocation of LGs is a
major enabler of insecurity and terrorism in the Nigerian countryside.
Most of Nigeria’s 774 LGAs exist in rural areas where effective local
governance is an existential issue. To underscore their responsibility
to the people, President Buhari recently reminded the LG Chairmen of
their burden of accounting for every kobo allocated to their Councils,
should they fold their arms and allow the sharing to continue by the
state governors.

10 On Assets Recovery, the Presidential Advisory Committee Against
Corruption (PACAC) has assisted anti-corruption agencies in devising
clearer strategies for obtaining forfeiture of assets suspected to
have been fraudulently acquired from state coffers before prosecuting
suspected culprits. Part of this work has involved painstakingly
reviewing existing Laws (Money Laundering Act, 2004, EFCC Act, 2004
and ICPC Act, 2000) to identify and highlight sections directly
conferring powers of forfeiture on Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies.
This advocacy has led to a significant increase in the use of
Non-Conviction Based Asset Forfeiture Mechanisms by anti-corruption
agencies.

To check terrorism financing in Nigeria, the Federal Government
has deployed a plethora of tools, including the Money Laundering Act,
2004, the EFCC Act, 2004, the ICPC Act, 2000, Department of State
Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to
deal with the issue of corruption, money laundering and terror
financing. The ongoing harmonization of Bank Verification Numbers
(BVN) with National Identification Numbers (NIN) is also a means of
tracking the flow of funds within Nigeria and, by extension, tackling
terror financing.
Let me now highlight the much more-visible activities of some of
the various anti-corruption agencies, all of which have been
effectively carrying out their mandates. In 2021 alone, the EFCC
secured a total of 2,220 convictions. That represents a 127 percent
increase in the number of convictions (976) recorded in 2020, and a
far cry from the 195 convictions secured in 2016, the 189 in 2017, the
312 convictions in 2018, and the 1,280 recorded in 2019. The 2021
figure of 2,220 convictions represents a 98.49 per cent success rate,
with only 34 cases (representing 1.51 per cent) discharged. On
Monetary recoveries, in 2021 alone, the EFCC recovered a total
monetary amount of N152,088,698,751.64; 1,182,519.75 Pounds Sterling,
50 Emirati Dirham, 1,723,310 Saudi Riyal, 1,900 South African Rand;
US$386,220,202.85; 156,246.76 Euros; 1,400 Canadian Dollars;
5.36957319 Bitcoin and 0.09012 Ethereum. The last two are digital
currencies.
The ICPC has played a pivotal role in bringing about structural
changes in the operations of the government, especially regarding
improvements in MDAs budget utilization, better value for money,
improved project completion, service delivery and higher level of
anti-corruption awareness. Recall, gentlemen, that the Commission
established the Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking
Initiative in 2019 to ensure value for money for the Nigerian people
and full execution of projects. Between 2019 and 2021, ICPC traced
2,000 projects worth over N300 billion. During the same period, 326
contractors of abandoned projects across the six geo-political zones
were forced by the Commission to return to site to complete projects
worth N32.183 billion. Also, the ICPC’s Assets Tracing, Recovery and
Management (ATRM) project led to the recovery of cash totalling
N34.346 billion and US$1.62 million between 2019 and 2021. Also, the
Commission’s System Study and Review of personnel and capital votes of
MDAs resulted in savings of N261 billion to the government between
2019 and 2021. ICPC has also secured 66 convictions from the 243 cases
it filed in court during the same three-year period.
For its part, the analysis by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence
Unit (NFIU), in 2020-2021, revealed 96 financiers of terrorism in
Nigeria, 424 associates/supporters of the financiers, involvement of
about 123 companies and 33 bureaux de change, in addition to
identifying 26 suspected bandits/kidnappers and 7 co-conspirators. The
analysis has resulted in the arrest of 45 suspects who will soon face
prosecution and seizure of assets. Also, from its analysis of tax
evasion and tax avoidance linked to corruption, NFIU has identified
N3,909,707,678,112.43 in VAT and N3,737,918,335,785.82 in Withholding
Tax due to the Government. NFIU has also sent 1,165 intelligence
reports on cases of corruption, money laundering and other serious
offences to 27 domestic agencies for investigation, prosecution and
asset recovery. On terrorism financing, NFIU had intelligence
exchanges on Boko Haram, ISWAP, banditry, kidnapping and others with
19 countries. During the same period, 2020-2021, the organization
returned fraudulently-obtained funds totalling US$103,722,102.83,
3,000 Pound Sterling; 7,695 Singapore Dollar and 1,091 Euros to 11
countries of victims who came into the country.
There is also the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), which was
established as an institutional response to the observed deterioration
in the conduct of Public Officers, especially because these behavioral
changes manifested greatly in the abuse of public office for private
gains. The Bureau handles, among others, issues of asset declaration
by Public Officials as well as the verification of their assets. In
2021, CCB issued 125,000 Assets Declaration Forms, out of which 97,201
forms were returned. These figures represent a 48% increase in the
number of Assets Declaration forms issued and an 81% increase in
submission compliance, when compared with the previous year. As part
of its reforms, the CCB is ready to deploy an Online Assets
Declaration Portal that will allow for enhanced storage and retrieval
of data, reduce delays caused by incomplete and incorrect declarations
and reduced errors, among others. In 2021, the Bureau investigated
several cases involving illicit enrichment, conflicts of interest,
abuse of office and ethical breaches, resulting in the filing of over
200 cases before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Gentlemen, we have gone to this length to let you know that the
Buhari Administration’s fight against corruption is unwavering and on course. This
Administration has put in place structures that will not only check
corrupt tendencies but will also make corruption unattractive and
costly to those who may want to engage in it. Even the World Bank says
when
approaching anti-corruption at the country level, it is important to
put in place ”institutional systems and incentives to prevent
corruption from occurring in the first place”, and that is exactly
what we are doing with the structural and governance reforms that I
have enumerated above. I want to most sincerely commend the efforts of
the various anti-corruption agencies for their unwavering commitment
to the fight against corruption. I also want to implore all Nigerians
to join in this fight, as it is not a fight for the government alone.
With the support of all citizens, I can assure you that we will defeat
this monster that stunts development and impedes investment.
I thank you all for your kind attention.