Its Deputy Country Director Jan Thomas Heimestra spoke in Abuja at an expert workshop on development developing a training module on training of corruption risk assessors.
It was organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR) and Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). He said the country must fight corruption with all available techniques.
Heimestra noted that the Federal Government is serious about the fight against corruption.
He said: “Well, corruption has become something and it is so entrenched in Nigeria. But I do believe that the government is doing its best. But is has become so persuasive that the trouble really needs all the tools and all the methodology to tackle it at this stage.”
The former Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Prof Asisi Asobie sought the implementation of the Hon Farouk Lawan led ad-hoc committee probe report on the Premium Motor Spirit subsidy. He said despite that the lawmaker has allegedly soiled his integrity, most parts of the report are very correct and useful to the country.
“So, there are critical issues identified that is still relevant. So nobody should rubbish the entire report mainly because somebody has allegedly undermined his own integrity and disappointed Nigerians. But let us still say allegedly because we are still waiting for the final determination of the case,” he said.
The former NEITI chairman, who was a facilitator in the workshop, noted that the report was right that the subsidy fund was paid to those who never supplied the Premium Motor Spirit (petrol).
He added that the report was also correct to have pointed out that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) paid itself subsidy, contrary to the provision of the law.
Asobie said: “I agree, considering what has happened to Faouk Lawan, people are likely to think that the best thing is to throw away the report. But No. Go and read it. I have the report. You will find out that though you have some problems with some of the things they say. Even before this bribery scandal came you can question some of the things. But the critical issue is that they are correct.
“One of the issues they raised is that people were getting paid for not supplying fuel. So you can actually identify that as a critical problem. One of the issues is that the report identified the problem that NNPC was paying itself subsidy. And there is no power for NNPC to do that. The constitution says the opposite.”
Anti-CorruptionLeague
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