Introduction
The
issue of corruption has led to loss of confidence in Nigeria by its
citizens at home and abroad due to the activities of fraudsters, corrupt
public officials and mis-governance by our leaders. On the
international scene, Nigeria has been blacklisted as a slate in which
integrity and transparency are alien and where no transactions occur
without greasing palms. Others are over concentration of resource at the
centre and a culture of unregulated informal economy, inefficient
contract awards, inadequate enforcement of existing law, absence of the
rule of law and a culture of preferential treatment in the conduct of
government business. The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC)
and Economic and Financial Corruption Commission (EFCC) were
established by the present administration to combat corruption at
various levels. It is lamentable to observe that in spite of these
strategies in place, little or no success has been achieved in that
direction. The main objectives of the study are to identify the causes
of corruption and their effects on Nigerian society; to analyse the role
of the various Strategic Agencies on Anti-corruption and the impact of
their existence. The findings of the study are that the existing
Anti-Corruption Agencies are trying their best to curb corruption in
Nigeria but that greediness and political instability are some of the
primary causes of corruption. In fighting corruption, Nigeria requires
good and virtuous leaders who are honest with integrity, discipline and
trustworthy, creation of employment, upgrading of Nigeria police amongst
others.
1.0 Definition with types of corruption.
Corruption has no uniform definition. This is so because what is
regarded as corruption depends on the actors, the profiteers,
initiators, how and where it takes place. It also depends on the
existing laws and regulations guiding certain actions. There are also
levels of corrupt practices. The United Nations (UN) has adopted a
descriptive approach and criminalization of the act to describe what act
is corrupt. The UN clearly highlighted bribery, embezzlement, illicit
enrichment, abuse of office, laundering of proceeds of corruption,
obstruction of justice, etc, as corrupt acts.
The Independent
Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) Act, 2000, defines corrupt acts to
include “bribery, fraud and other related offences”.
2.0 Effect of Corruption on Nation-Building
Many
have noted the effects of corruption on nation-building. Development
scholars observe this effect. Corruption has an adverse effect on social
and economic development and also in building a nation. The effects
include:
_Diversion of development resources for _private gain
_Misallocation of talent
_Lost tax revenue
_Negative impact on quality of infrastructure and public services
_Slowing of economic growth.
3.0 Role of Law Enforcement in Combating Corruption and there strategies.
Before
President Olusegun Obasanjo's regime, the police and some related
agencies were the only ones fighting corruption. When Obasanjo became
president in 1999, the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and
the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences (ICPC) were
put in place, they have dealt seriously with the pandemic situation.
The EFCC and ICPC have a number of roles in fighting corruption in
Nigeria. The ICPC is not subject to the direction or control of any
person or authority. The EFCC collaborates with international and local
agencies.
3.1 The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
The
need to curb the trend of corruption and lack of accountability by
those occupying positions of authority in Nigeria necessitated the
establishment of EFCC in 2003 by President Olusegun Obasanjo. This
patriotic move became imperative in response to pressure from the
international community which named Nigeria as one of the notorious 23
countries that did not cooperate with the fight against money
laundering. The government later promulgated the EFCC Act 2004 to give
legal backing to the watchdog agency. Ribadu (2006) noted that Nigeria’s
target with regard to financial accountability and mismanagement of
common wealth is zero tolerance for corruption. This EFCC hoped to
actualize through diverse strategies, thus;
i. Promulgation of
laws against graft – Independent Corrupt Practices and (Other Related
Offences) Commission (ICPC) Act, Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) Act, Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2004.
ii. Strengthening of anti-corruption and other economic crimes Institutions for effective law enforcement.
iii. Prosecution and conviction of high ranking administration officials.
iv. Tracing, seizing and confiscation of all proceeds of crime.
Journal of Business Administration and Education 112
v. Institution of the Due Process Mechanism in public sector procurements.
vi.
Privatization of failing public institutions and creating an enabling
environment for effective private-public partnerships.
vii. Monthly publication of distributable revenue from the Federation Account to the different tiers of government.
viii.
Institution of transparencies in the oil and gas sector through the
work of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)
In
line with the above strategies, the EFCC is empowered by law to
investigate, prevent and prosecute offenders who engage in “Money
laundering, embezzlement, bribery, looting and any form of corrupt
practices, illegal arms deal, smuggling, human trafficking, and child
labour, illegal oil bunkering, illegal mining, tax evasion, foreign
exchange malpractices including counterfeiting of currency, theft of
intellectual property and piracy, open market abuse, dumping of toxic
wastes, and prohibited goods” (Section 46, EFCC Establishment Act,
2004). The Commission is also responsible for identifying, tracing,
freezing, confiscating, or seizing proceeds derived from terrorist
activities. EFCC is also host to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence
Unit (NFIU), vested with the responsibility of collecting suspicious
transactions reports (STRs) from financial and designated non-financial
institutions, analyzing and disseminating them to all relevant
government agencies and other Punishment prescribed in the EFCC
Establishment Act range from combination of payment of fine, forfeiture
of assets and up to five years imprisonment depending on the nature and
gravity of the offence. Conviction for terrorist financing and terrorist
activities attracts life imprisonment (Ribadu, 2006).
3.2 Independent Corrupt Practices & Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)
The
rationale for creating ICPC was not different from that of EFCC.
According to Akanbi, (2005) the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission (ICPC) emerged as a policy response from the
Federal Government to fight and curb corruption that has tragically
corroded its moral fabric, eroded its economic base and threatened its
stability. The Obasanjo’s administration therefore established the
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission
(ICPC) in September 1999 and warmly enacted the Corrupt Practices and
Other Related Offences Act in June 2000 (Ibid).
The mandate of ICPC
in line with the Act setting it up was to prohibit and prescribe
punishment for corruption, fraud, embezzlement, bribery and forgery
perpetrated by Nigerians at home and abroad with impunity. The ICPC Act
2000 brings under its purview all Nigerians, in the private and public
sectors and even those political office-holders with constitutional
immunity. The Provision of Section 6 (a-f) of the ICPC Act 2000 sets out
the duties of the Commission as paraphrased in the following:
i.
To receive and investigate complaints from members of the public on
allegations of corrupt practices and in appropriate cases, prosecute the
offenders.
ii. To examine the practices, systems and procedures of
public bodies and where such systems aid corruption, to direct and
supervise their review.
iii. To instruct, advise and assist any
officer, agency, or parastatal on ways by which fraud or corruption may
be eliminated or minimized by them.
iv. To advise heads of public
bodies of any changes in practice, systems or procedures compatible with
the effective discharge of the duties of public bodies to reduce the
likelihood or incidence of bribery, corruption and related offences.
v. To educate the public on and against bribery, corruption and related offences.
vi. To enlist and foster public support in combating corruption.
4.1 Causes of Corruption in Nigeria
Our
previous colonial background has been identified by scholars. Our
colonial heritage has altered our values and perception of morality;
some of the causes of corruption are:
1. Trade Restriction.
2. Government subsidies.
3. Price controls.
4. Low wages in civil service.
5. Sociological factors.
4.2 Solutions
In
order to prevent corruption from happening at all, Nigerian should
emphasis transparency, integrity, and accountability in all their
private and public transaction.
1. What can be remedy of
corruption? It can be only possible if people can understand and start
to believe the values of ethics and morality in their life. People will
start to believe that their life is accountable if they really start to
believe in GOD, in oneness of GOD and if they really start to live life
on the way which GOD has chosen for mankind.
2. Responsiveness,
accountability and transparency are a must for a clean system.
Bureaucracy, the backbone of good governance, should be made more
citizen friendly, accountable, ethical and transparent.
3. More
and more courts should be opened for speedy & inexpensive justice so
that cases don’t linger in courts for years and justice is delivered on
time.
4. Local bodies, Independent of the government, like
ICPC, EFCC, NAVC and Vigilance Commissions should be formed to provide
speedy justice with low expenses.
5. A new Fundamental Right
viz. Right to Information should be introduced, which will empower the
citizens to ask for the information they want.
5.0 Conclusion/Recommendations
In
spite of the efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC)and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission (ICPC), the level of corruption is still of serious concern
and remains the greatest challenge.
a) The Executive Arm of
government in conjunction with the National Assembly need to come up
workable framework for harmonizing and strengthening the role of ICPC
and EFCC in order to forestall recklessness and abuse of the principles
of accountability and corporate governance in public and private sector
organisations in Nigeria.
b) Public and private sector
organisations should be enjoined to take a closer look at their
financial operations and as a matter of policy decline to provide
tolerant environments for corrupt financial dealings. Accountants who
come across corrupt financial transactions during the course of their
professional duties must not be party to it. Rather, they should report
such transactions to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other
RelatedOffences Commission, the EFCC, the Code of Conduct Bureau, and
other organizations saddled with the task of eradicating corruption in
Nigeria.
c) The EFCC, ICPC and other organizations saddled with
the task of eradicating corruption in Nigeria should earnestly beam
their searchlights on political office-holders, executive directors,
banks et cetera being possible conduit pipes for corrupt financial
flows.
d) EFCC should strengthen its vigilance and
monitoring mechanisms over the nation’s ministries, commissions, private
sector organisations, banking and financial industry, universities et
cetera to forestall poor accountability corrupt and violation of
corporate governance ethics with impunity.
No comments:
Post a Comment