Muhammadu Buhari |
The
directive came on the heels of overwhelming evidence of financial improprieties
and sundry corrupt actions among government workers as gathered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), in collaboration with financial institutions at the end of the Bank
Verification Number exercise. Mind-boggling deals have been revealed involving
all levels of officials in the country’s public service to the extent that,
according to reports, what has been found with politicians pales into relative
insignificance.
For
instance, it was discovered that many of the workers operate several local and
foreign accounts used for siphoning money from government coffers, laundering
same and using the proceeds in buying property within and outside Nigeria.
These findings, reportedly, infuriated the president who directed the Head of
Service to ensure that all members of staff of federal ministries, agencies and
departments declare their assets immediately. Assets declaration, it must be
emphasized, is not new to the civil service. As a matter of fact, the
Constitution makes assets declaration mandatory to act as a safeguard against
corrupt practices by public servants.
In
furtherance of this, the Constitution went ahead to create the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), to
receive and verify the assets declared, and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to try and punish those who act in
the breach. Unfortunately, both the CCB and Code of Conduct Tribunal have not
lived up to expectation due to poor funding and incompetence of personnel. As
it were, over the years, only politicians have been made to declare their
assets, which is why the present demand on civil servants is most appropriate.
The role of civil servants as executors of government vision is too crucial and
the officials too exposed to material assets not to demand the highest level of
probity.
Ideally,
every public servant, including university workers and other tertiary
institution employees are required by law to declare their assets on assumption
of duty, and every four years thereafter. Even before the latest financial
improprieties were exposed through the Bank Verification Number exercise, it
has always been common knowledge that the civil service is a cesspit of
corruption. While politicians come and go, civil servants have been the
immovable rock in the massive looting of Nigeria’s resources. Indeed, they are
known not only to corrupt the politicians by pointing the way for them, knowing
where all the proverbial copses are buried as the ones with the institutional
tools and memory, civil servants also enrich themselves beyond measure.
It has been
revealed that properties owned by many of these civil servants are not built
with their legitimate income, of course, but these have been difficult to trace
to them because many are owned through proxies. There is the need, therefore,
for proper registration of such property for ease of verification of ownership.
Also, government should impose heavy property tax if this would help to unravel
ownership.
Virtually
all cadres of the civil service are involved in the sleaze, with a few
individual exceptions. For that reason, it may not just be enough to merely
demand asset declaration without a mechanism for verification to uncover
deliberate falsification of information, in which case, even a forensic
verification exercise should be considered.
Luckily, the
government is working hard to establish such a forensic diagnostic centre that
would help in dealing with falsification of documents. There is also a need for
whistle blowers in the service to be encouraged with appropriate protection for
them. It is good enough that government is beaming the searchlight on civil
servants because reforming the civil service to stem waste, and corruption,
create efficiency and effectiveness is one of the ways to save Nigeria. (Guardian)
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