FORTY Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and other cars have been recovered from a former permanent secretary, who appropriated them to himself when he left office.
Speaking on the Federal Government’s anti-corruption war, Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement yesterday in Lagos, said government was guided by a strategy contrary to misconceptions that the government was fighting corruption without a strategy.
According to the minister, the government was not fixated on prosecution alone, but in measures to make corruption unattractive.
Mohammed stressed that enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has largely reduced diversion of government funds.
He said the TSA had reduced constraints in fishing out ghost workers in the public service in most states.
Other measures strengthening anti-corruption, the minister said, were establishment of the Presidential Committee on Asset Recovery, Asset Tracing Committee, Asset Register and the Whistle Blower Policy.
The minister announced plans by the government, through the Code of Conduct Bureau, to start trial run of electronic asset declaration from next year.
He said the method would facilitate compliance and enhance search and retrieval of data on assets of public officers.
In addition, he said, the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption would work with relevant MDAs, especially the National Bureau of Statistics, to improve data collection on corruption indicators.
“Once perfected, the data will be shared with government periodically; if possible, as regularly as government receives data on inflation and unemployment trends.
“The data will indicate trends in corruption and influence government measures to correct the situation before it gets out of hand as we have now,” he said.
The minister explained that the Presidential Committee on Asset Recovery will meet regularly to collate reports from key law enforcement agencies on government’s anti-corruption effort.
He said the committee would share information, intelligence and review challenges faced in anti-corruption efforts and give directives on the way forward.
The minister added that the Asset Register made looting of government physical assets, notably vehicles, difficult.
He said the approval of the Whistle Blower Policy would further enhance government’s effort to recover looted funds.
“People who give credible and useful information to government that leads to recovery of stolen public assets will be rewarded with between 2.5 per cent to five per cent of the recovered fund.
“Government will keep the identity of the whistle blower confidential,” he said.
Mohammed said the government was finalising the constitution of an Asset Tracing Team to work with international reputable bodies to trace and recover public assets in private hands.
“In this regard, government will escalate the use of non-conviction-based asset recovery methods to boost revenue and diminish corruption and the perception that crime pays or criminals can keep their loot,” he said.
The minister added that the administration would collaborate with Nigerians in diaspora and international civil society organisations in the campaign for return of Nigeria’s looted assets.
