George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
The Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Osita Aboloma, has revealed that the organisation has established an anti-bribery management standard.
He said that the purpose of the standard is to specify fundamental requirements for delivering of effective organisation performance in both the public and private sectors.
The SON boss stated this on Wednesday in Owerri during a workshop on the “General Sensitization on Good Governance and Anti-Bribery Standards,” organised in collaboration with El-Sunnic Integrated Resources.
This is coming as the Chairman of the Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Samuel Agunwa Ohiri, alleged that the Nigeria Police and the Customs Service are the most corrupt government agencies, noting that they have turned the entire South East as into extortion zone via numerous illegal check points across the zone.
Osita Aboloma who was represented at the Owerri event by Obi David, Regional Coordinator, South East, noted that the workshop was to enlighten the public on good governance, management and anti- bribery standards launched by the organisation.
He said: “SON launched Good Governance Management Standards. Our hope is that the standard will achieve the desired objectives and bring about positive changes in our governmental practices in Nigeria. Transparency, due process, data – integrity, quality requirements of goods and services accountability and ethics are ensured with GSS without impeding enterprise and innovation.
The available standards on GSS and ABS are anti-bribery Management system Standard ISO37001: 2016 which was adopted in Nigeria on January 29, 2018.
The standard addresses bribery which is a component of corruption generally.”
Aboloma disclosed that the purpose of the standard is to specify fundamental requirements for delivering effective organisation performance in both the public and private sectors.
“Good Governance Standard and Anti- Bribery management standard are not laws, they are policy-making principles and guidelines based on best practices. These standards are complimentary to laws,” he submitted.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of the Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers and Obi of Orodo, Eze Ohiri alleged that the officers of the Nigeria Police and Customs service were the most corrupt of all the Federal government agencies.
The visibly angry monarch questioned the rationale of the security mounting illegal road blocks in all the nooks and crannies of the zone extorting money from the people and impounding the goods of the people.
“The Nigeria Police and Customs Service are the most corrupt of all the Federal government Agencies and what have today is road block every two kilometres mounted either by the police or the Customs for the purpose of extorting money from commuters. Even the Customs officers have been impounding goods people have already cleared from the ports. We are just under siege and we cannot continue to allow this situation. From Owerri to Onitsha you have over 100 illegal check points,” he fumed.
Meanwhile, Obinna Nwankwo , a resource person said that bad governance has been the bane of development of the country.
“Today, it is not an exaggeration that most Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government are facing near administrative collapse because of bribery and corruption leading to wide-spread disillusionment of Nigerians with the government and private sector alike.
“It is against this backdrop, that SON as a foremost standards regulatory body of the government is supporting the fight against bad governance, corruption and bribery by the Federal government by tapping into International Organisation for Standardisation’s code 902 and 37001 which are good governance and anti-bribery management system.”