At Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and other Offenses Commission (ICPC) has decided the Supreme Court and 51 other government institutions as “high corruption risk”.
This is contained in the commission’s latest ethics and transparency index report which lists 52 Ministries and Departmental Agencies (MDAs) that are not responsive to the Ethics and Compliance Scorecard assessment for 2022.
The commission said it uses the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS) in federal government MDAs to assess compliance with existing ethics, integrity, statutory, policy and regulatory standards and practices.
It said 52 non-responsive MDAs were marked for further investigation and action. The commission announced this in a tweet on Friday.
52 MDAs refused to respond to the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS) distributed in 2022 by the ICPC. They are classified as “High Corruption Risk” (HCR) and flagged for public attention and for further inquiries and action. #transparency #compliance pic.twitter.com/aZuCMZeCtT
— ICPC Nigeria (@icpcnigeria) January 12, 2023
The index states that 260 MDAs are responsive to the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS). He added that the agency is judged on the level of compliance.
According to the report, the Ministry of Justice was rated among the responsive MDAs with a score of 18.95 percent, while other justice sector agencies were noted as ignoring the anti-corruption authority’s ethical scorecard survey.
The Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, and the National Institute of Justice are among the institutions in the judicial sector identified in the report as “High Corruption Risk” (HCR) in the country.
“The objective of the deployment of EICS in MDAs is to reduce the risk of corruption, abuse of the system and refresh the ethics and integrity benchmarks in government offices while ensuring good service delivery.
“The tool was distributed between April and July 2022 in 360 MDAs with a special focus on the education sector in line with the 4th National Summit on Reducing Corruption in the Public Sector with the theme ‘Reducing Corruption in the Education Sector,” ICPC said in an advertorial post published in Daily Trust abide.
The anti-corruption agency said the EICS is essential to building a sound ethical structure in the MDAs.
It also urged MDAs to implement ethics and integrity compliance practices into the system to reduce corruption in public offices and service delivery.
The EICS project, launched in 2015, was developed as an evaluation tool by the anti-corruption authority to rank MDAs on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to determine the level of compliance with institutional ethics and integrity requirements.
The methodology evaluates MDA based on key indicators of ethics and compliance in three broad categories – Management Culture and Structure, Financial Management System, and Administrative System – each carrying a total of 100 points, expressed as a percentage.
According to the ICPC, the assessment exercise is in accordance with Section 6(b)-(d) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Offenses Act, 2000.
The ICPC stated that it will work to improve the probability, accountability, and openness of the public sector.
PREMIUM TIMES it was reported last year that the ICPC in the EICS report found 138 government agencies, or 45.3 percent, without an operational asset verification unit. The commission said the development was in violation of government directives instructing the MDAs to set up the department.
MDA High Corruption Risk
Agencies classified as High Corruption Risk, include: ‘Women’s Development Centre, Court of Appeal, National Art Gallery, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Council, National Population Commission, National Environmental Standards Regulatory Enforcement Agency, and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission. .
They also include Standards Organization of Nigeria, National Center for Disease Control, National Broadcasting Commission, National Hospital, National Examination Board, Minna, Universal Basic Education Commission, Federal Civil Service Commission, National Border Commission and Nigerian Asset Management Company.
Others are the Engineering Regulatory Council of Nigeria, the National Agricultural Seed Board, Kwali, Nigeria, the Social Insurance Trust Fund, and the Nigerian Maritime Academy, Oron.
MDA is responsive
According to the report, the National Lottery Trust Fund scored the highest point of 86.05 percent. It was followed by the Federal Ministry of Environment with 85.78 percent, and the National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency, Kaduna, 85.46 percent, the National Salary, Income and Wages Commission, 82.60 percent, and the State House, Abuja, with 82.00 tip.
Other agencies, such as the Ministry of Works and Housing, were also among the responding MDAs who responded to the ICPC ethics survey with a score of 69.20 percent.
The Ministry of Finance, Niger Delta Affairs, the Nigerian Football Federation NFF, and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka recorded 42.45, 42.10, and 42.00 percent respectively.
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