The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stressed the need for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria to address issues that lead to pervasive corruption and its effects on the Nigerian economy.
This was made known when the IMF team, led by Mr. Alin Shane, paid a consultation visit to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) at its headquarters.
Mr. Shane said that the aim of the visit was to engage selected government institutions on developments in their activities and the country as a whole, adding that the focus on ICPC was on its role, mandate, cases and convictions, status of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs), Civil Service Reforms as regards ghost workers, job descriptions as well as electronic salary payments.
The team wanted to know the efforts made by the Commission to change the negative perception of corruption in Nigeria as well as strategies adopted to tackle corruption and the successes of such strategies.
They also expressed their expectation that the consultation would address how the Commission tackles the demand and supply sides of corruption, procurement fraud and the handling of recovered assets.
In his response the Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN, OFR stated that corruption was the bedrock of the nation’s underdevelopment, negative perception and economical issues, and that surveys and reports conducted in the past had been on retail corruption.
