THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), and Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) have emerged as the top performers in the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) 2024 Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS), with all of them scoring above 80 per cent, respectively.
However, several prominent institutions, including the Supreme Court, Nigeria Press Council (NPC), and Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), obtained zero points in the integrity test conducted by the anti-graft agency.
Other institutions that fared poorly in the test include the Federal University of Agriculture Umudike, Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, Federal Polytechnic Ede, Osun State, and the University of Ibadan, Oyo State. All of which received zero points.
This poor showing raises serious concerns about the state of corruption and accountability in these institutions and highlights the need for urgent reform and improvement, the ICPC said.
At the report unveiling on Thursday, December 19, at the ICPC headquarters in Abuja, the agency, through its spokesperson, Demola Bakare, said the report was a result of a nationwide assessment of 330 government institutions.
According to him, the commission through the evaluation examined the ethical standards, corruption prevention measures, and governance practices of the organisations.
He added that the key areas included leadership and management, financial management, and policies related to ethics, education, and whistleblower protection.
“The EICS serves as a preventive tool used to assess and enhance the compliance of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) with ethical standards, policies, and anti-corruption measures.
“The objectives of the initiative are to identify organisational gaps and provide actionable insights; advise the government on policy development for oversight; promote self-evaluation and remedial actions within MDAs; and establish an objective rating of MDAs to foster improvement,” Bakare stated.
The report shows that none of the 330 government agencies evaluated achieved perfect compliance. Instead, the agencies fell into various compliance categories: 29.55 per cent showed significant compliance, 51.62 per cent had moderate compliance, 15.91 per cent demonstrated weak compliance, and 2.92 per cent failed to comply.
The ICPC identified common weaknesses among the agencies, including a lack of policies to protect whistleblowers, an absence of strategic plans and ineffective inventory management.
Others are failure to conduct regular internal audits and delayed or missing financial and audit reports.
The commission said these gaps undermined the MDA’s ability to operate efficiently and transparently.
The ICIR reported on Wednesday, December 18, that the ICPC secured 16 convictions and tracked 1,500 projects valued at N610 billion in one year.
The ICPC chairman, Musa Adamu Aliyu, a senior advocate, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday, December 17, during his first anniversary in office.
He said that in the past year, the commission processed 851 petitions, fully investigated 95 cases, and filed 72 cases in court, securing 16 convictions.
He added that the agency recovered over N29.7 billion in cash and made significant progress in tracking government projects nationwide.
Besides, Aliyu stated that the commission recovered N10.986 billion in value-added tax (VAT) and remitted it to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
The commission also finalised the forfeiture of assets valued at N2.5 billion and blocked the diversion of public funds amounting to N5.8 billion.
A reporter with the ICIR
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