Benjamin Babine, Abuja
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission, ICPC, and the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding in their efforts to strengthen the fight against corruption by identifying and prosecuting corrupt individuals.
The AuGF, Mr Anthony Ayine signed on behalf of the audit body, while the Chairman of ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye signed on behalf of his agency.
In his remarks at the event, Ayine described the event as a significant milestone that would enable the two organizations to join forces in dealing with corruption.
He said: “Essentially, this collaboration is to strengthen accountability and fight against corruption in our country. We as auditors lack enforcement power, but ICPC has that power. I believe the complementary effect of our working together will definitely achieve so much”.
The AuGF noted that the collaboration will send a strong signal to Nigerians that the fight against corruption has moved a notch higher, adding that his office has in 2017, identified some critical stakeholders that it needed to collaborate with.
“Just in November when ICPC had the anti-corruption conference which Mr President was in attendance. It was very clear to everyone the successes they have recorded. And we were honest with ourselves as an office that we need to upscale our relationship with the ICPC as we identified them as a critical stakeholder in our line of work”.
Also speaking at the programme, the chairman of the ICPC described the collaboration as a vital and timely effort that will yield positive results. He said: “A radical problem requires a radical solution. What we are trying to do today is to formalize a relationship that has been incubating for months in order to deal with corruption which has set Nigeria back.
“President Buhari has said ‘if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria and that is the truth. We are very delighted to have this relationship with the Auditor-General basically to initiate new strategies and methods for dealing with corruption,”.
Prof Owasanoye further stressed the importance of the collaboration and how it will help make the work of fighting corruption easier.
He added, “Hitherto as you probably know, the Auditor-General’s office is set up by the constitution does its work and reports directly to the National Assembly. Sometimes, until that report is taken and made public, other law enforcement agencies may not be privy to what they have found.
“In the course of implementing our mandate over the years, some of the things that the Auditor-General’s report have disclosed are some of the things that we have found and taken enforcement measures on. We feel given the size, experience, knowledge and the spread of the Auditor-General’s office, it will be very strategic to collaborate with them in order to do more with less to achieve our goals,” he added.
The ICPC chairman revealed that a joint specialised training has been designed for both the officials of the Auditor-General’s office and of the ICPC’s, to prepare for activities that will commence next week.