Corruption Is A Crime Of Opportunity, Says ICPC

Chairman, ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta
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Corruption has been described as an opportunistic crime committed when the criminally-minded locates a leeway to pull it off.
Consequently government at all levels, it has been said, can minimise corruption via the proactive measure of blocking loopholes in their systems and make it “as difficulty as possible” for the corrupt to succeed in gaming the system.
Director, Public Enlightenment and Spokesperson, Independent Corrupt and other related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mrs. Rasheedat A. Okoduwa, mni made this submission on Tuesday in Abuja.
Mrs. Okoduwa spoke at the “Validation Meeting for Stakeholders on Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) Of Nigeria’s E-Government Platforms” organised by the ICPC.
According to her the CRA was carried on a number of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) in the country to “reduce corruption, enhance accountability and transparency across MDAs.”

Mrs Rasheedat Okoduwa, mni

Mrs. Okoduwa, who delivered an overview of the CRA, listed several challenges encountered by the ICPC on the exercise, which supported by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC). These include human resistance to e-government initiatives, especially among civil servants and bankers.
In conclusion however, the ICPC spokesperson said the CRA revealed that Nigeria’s e-government system “to a large extent…has reduced corruption” in the country.
Various stakeholders who spoke at the event reviewed the ICPC reports, offering suggestions on how the e-systems and the final draft of the report could be improved, even as they commended the ICPC for taking on the task and doing a good job of it.
Executive Director, SystemSpecs – the ICT firm behind the online payment platform, Remita – Mr. Aderemi Atanda, who also spoke at the event disclosed that the Federal Government has stopped all payments for his company’s services since the Senate raised some issues about Remita last year.
Curiously however, the government continues to use Remita to improve its efficiency in revenue collection, especially the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Atanda urged the government to redress the situation in order not to adversely affect the operations of SystemSpecs as a corporate entity, even as he urged the government to encourage the development of indigenous capacity in ICT.
Head, Anti-Corruption Unit of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. S.A. Lawal, corroborated the ICPC finding which showed that the NITDA was not carried along in the formulation and implementation of the government’s flagship e-systems examined which are the TSA, the Integrated Payroll and Information IPPIS and the Government Integrated Financial Management Personnel Information System (GIFMIS).
However, Lawal said NITDA was working on a number of innovative policy documents and ICT systems to rectify the anomaly.
Secretary, ICPC, Dr. Elvis Oglafa, who gave the welcome address, represented the ICPC Chairman, Mr. Ekpo Nta at the event.
Also at the event were representatives of other government agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Office of the Head of Service, among others.


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