Poor funding of ICPC, Others Worries Senate
The
Senate has observed that the fight against corruption in Nigeria may be
scuttled by the growing underfunding of the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and other
anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria.
Chairman,
Senate Committee on Anti-corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator
Chukwuka Godfrey Utazi, who raised the concern during the budget defence
of ICPC at the National Assembly Complex noted that poor budgetary
allocation to the Commission would hinder ICPC from attaining its set
targets.
He
said, “If we want to fight corruption, we must fund the fight. You want
to fight corruption without funding? It won’t work. Agencies like ICPC
need to get into the consciousness of Nigerians. They need to do
enlightenment and educate the people on the ills of corruption. This
will help us to look at the ‘cause’ which is less expensive than what we
are doing now by running after the corrupt.”
Senator Utazi assured ICPC that the Senate would ensure improved budgetary allocation to the Commission.
His
words, “There must be a total overturn in the budgetary process. We
will make a case that you get what you deserve to do your work. We have
done that for others before, so we will do it again.
‘We
are going to see what the Committee will do. We will engage the
relevant people concerned including our colleagues from the House of
Representatives to look at the paltry sums being given to you.”
Earlier, the Chairman of ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta, lamented that inadequate funding was hindering the performance of the Commission.
He
told the Committee that some operations of the Commission were delayed
and others left unexecuted in 2016 because of insufficient funds even
while they were captured in the budget.
ICPC had submitted a budget proposal of N5.8 billion for 2017 to the National Assembly.
Mrs. Rasheedat A. Okoduwa, mni
Spokesperson for the Commission
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