Anti-Corruption War: ICPC Recovers N1.18bn From MDAs In 2012

Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta, has declared that there would be no hiding place again for Nigerians and organisations, which abuse their offices and fraudulently enrich themselves. In an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP Weekend in his office in Abuja, Nta disclosed that under the system review initiated by his administration in the fresh offensive against corruption, the commission as at November 2012 recovered N1.18 billion from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and their unscrupulous officials.
Under the initiative, the ICPC has reviewed the activities of 185 MDAs as well as sanitised the contributory pension scheme leading to the remittance of N243 billion into the Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) of contributors. Nta said before the ICPC’s intervention, the system was fraught with irregularities such that officials on the same level and duration of service would have different amount of money credited to their accounts.
To the contractor, who abandons the project site after collecting mobilisation fees, the university teacher, who extorts and harasses students, the public servant, who breaches fiscal and budgetary rules as well as persons living in apartments or owning property above their legitimate means, Nta warned that it would no longer be business as usual for them under the anti-graft agency headed by him.
And beyond the usual arrest, arraignment and trial of indicted officials, the ICPC now recovers the stolen money, seizes the assets and property acquired with such ill-gotten wealth from public functionaries.
The anti-graft campaign, which is spearheaded by the ICPC through its Financial Investigation/Assets Tracing and Recovery Unit, according to Nta focuses on the prevention of corruption than prosecution after the offence had been committed because “it is too expensive to prosecute a single corruption.”
The system review has also led to the recovering of N188 million in 2011 from eight MDAs and N25 million from some area council top officials in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Also the land administration system in the FCT has attracted the attention of the ICPC.
Nta, from Akwa Ibom State, represented the South South region in the commission until  November 2011 when he became the acting chairman of the commission before President Goodluck Jonathan confirmed his appointment on Wednesday, September 28, 2012 and administered the oath of office on him.
To enhance the commission’s efficiency, he said the ICPC had streamlined its operations and concentrated on its core mandate of preventing the abuse of public office by their occupants. For cases bordering on criminality, according to Ekpo Nta, the police are left to handle them, financial crimes and money laundering matters belonged to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) while official misconduct falls under the purview of the Code of Conduct Bureau.
This strategy, he said, had worked well for the commission because “we are no longer doing everything and getting no meaningful result. We are fighting a noiseless war against corruption and it is paying off. Once we summon officials and organisations, they respond promptly because we are not just looking for the heads of offending MDAs but specific officers, who abused their office.”
To the MDAs which might attempt to touch their unspent funds in the 2012 budget, the ICPC has warned them not to do so because the money is “untouchable.” According to Ekpo Nta, the ICPC has sent circulars to all MDAs that all unspent funds in the 2012 budget, especially for personnel cost must not be tampered with.
He said: “We have sent a circular to ministers, permanent secretaries and accounting officers that nothing should happen to what is left on personnel cost. We are going to check the treasury in January next year to see how much has been returned and which official or establishment has failed to comply with the circular. Some of them have acknowledged recipient of the letters and complained that the terms are very harsh. But we have insisted that the money must remain intact.”
He hinted that the ICPC had succeeded in forcing contractors, who went under after collecting mobilisation fees for the construction of hostels for some universities in the South South zone to return to the sites, adding that appreciable work had been done on the projects.
The legal practitioner, political scientist and astute administrator-turned anti-graft czar agreed with suggestions that the ICPC Act should be reviewed to ensure timely completion of cases. He said although the ICPC Act provides that trial must be completed within 90 days, it was difficult for the courts to do so because of the harsh conditions and other compelling circumstances Nigerian judges work.
According to him, under a law reform scheme initiated by the Federal Government, the ICPC Act would be revisited to ensure that persons facing trial no longer hide under interlocutory injunction to frustrate their prosecution.
Responding to a question on the failure of MDAs to return the statutory 25 per cent Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) to the Federal Government, the ICPC boss said that the agency was doing all that was needed to ensure full compliance with the provisions.
He canvassed the early signing and release of budgets to avoid what has been described in some quarters as spending spree by agencies of the Federal Government in the last quarter of the year. The ICPC boss said the development might have been caused by the late release of allocations to the MDAs.
Nta said under his administration, the commission was no longer waiting for petitions from the public before moving against abuse of office by public officials. He disclosed that once the commission has adequate information on sharp practices by certain persons or organisation, it moves in to investigate and act promptly on its findings.
“Our concentration now is on the prevention of corruption. We have adopted proactive measures to the extent that we now act on information gathered at public events. There are instances where I have given out my telephone numbers and the ICPC emails to enable members of the public field us with relevant information. We also cautions of the fact that there are frivolous petitions, especially from politicians, who have scores to settle with their opponents.”
On the continued poor rating of Nigeria on the anti-corruption chart by Transparency International (TI), the ICPC chief said the global body’s perception index was not entirely representative of the facts on ground, adding that in partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the ICPC had taken steps to produce a perception index of corruption in Nigeria.
Asked if such reports were not an indictment of the anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria, Nta disagreed and said: “Imagine what would have been the scenario without the anti-corruption agencies.”