ICPC recovers N13b from MDAs

On Monday, October 31st, 2011

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The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) yesterday said it has recovered about N13 billion from some selected Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The commission said the recovery was done through its System Studies Review of the affected MDAs.

It said the money has been paid into the national traesury.

According to a statement by the Commision’s Head of Public Enlightenment, Mr. Mike Sowe, this was revealed in a paper presented at the ‘‘Roundtable on the Economic Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government of Nigeria”, by ICPC’s Secretary Mr. Elvis Oglafa.

The event was organised by the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in conjunction with the African Institute of Applied Economics.

Oglafa identified the over-dependence on oil as a serious challenge in dealing with corruption in Nigeria.

He said: “The ICPC believes that there is not only enough evidence of corruption in Nigeria but that corruption is also an impediment to Nigeria‘s development. Therefore, the option we present to this gathering is to help us fight it.’’

The statement added: “In highlighting the problem of funding facing the Commission, Mr Oglafa said the Independent Commission Against Corruption of Hong Kong (ICAC) has an average of one investigator to 5,000 people and a budget of $12.30 per capita to fight corruption while the ICPC has a staff strength of 534 in a nation of about 150 million people and a per capita budget of 0.3 cents to fight corruption.

‘’The secretary said the Commission is happy with the attempt by the National Planning Commission to ensure that the 36 states establish Planning Commissions and Boards of Statistics, which would generate data for adequate planning.

“The plan will also remove the haphazard projects that have become a cesspool of corruption, that litter the landscape as abandoned projects, after billions have been expended on them.’’

‘’He stressed the Commission`s readiness to partner the Office of the Special Adviser on Monitoring and Evaluation in ensuring that corruption is eliminated to enable our development plans achieve their key objectives.”