From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC’s) Chairman, Bolaji Owasanoye, has disclosed that investigations are ongoing to uncover numerous cases of job racketeering in the security sector as well as military contracts spending.

Owasanoye also called for a review of public procurement policies to reduce corrupt practices in the country.

The ICPC chairman spoke on Friday at the national policy dialogue on corruption and insecurity in Nigeria organised by the Commission.

He stated that the aim of the dialogue was to broaden stakeholders’ perspectives on the causes, enablers, and policy gaps that limited the nation’s ability to decisively and completely abolish insecurity within its borders.

According to him, ICPC’s research and findings demonstrated how corruption in the public sector both directly and indirectly promotes insecurity and can occasionally amplify it.

The ICPC chairman cited information from the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) when he claimed that $15 billion had been lost through shady arms deals in the nation during the past 20 years.

He said: “Recently, ICPC arrested a military contractor that received over a period of less than ten years a cumulative sum of about N6 billion from the Nigerian Army in suspicious circumstances and in violation of extant legislation.

“The Commission’s recovery of huge cash sums in local and foreign currencies, luxury cars, customised-mobile phones, designer watches including three Rolexes, as well as property documents from the premises of the contractor underscored the corruption that often attends military procurement.

 “Some former military and security personnel are being investigated by ICPC and our sister agency for embezzlement of funds allocated to security.

 “Another case under investigation is theft of parts of special intervention fund approved for security operations by some civil servants in the line ministry who transferred about N1 billion to four shell companies.

 

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“A special investigative team under the leadership of NSA and ICPC recovered some of the diverted assets, including state-of-the-art building located in Abuja and over N220 million cash. Investigation into this matter is still ongoing.

 

“The newly established police special intervention framework designed to eliminate underfunding of the police, the Police Trust Fund, is already under ICPC investigation for abuse, fund diversion bogus, questionable welfare packaging that is not for the police who are the beneficiaries of the fund and sundry corrupt practices.”

Owasanoye stated that the Commission was working with other anti-corruption agencies to look into instances of financial misuse in the procurement procedures of the defense sector.

 

“While ICPC and EFCC are investigating some of these anomalies, our efforts will not yield much without proactive prevention measures and a review of extant procurement practices,” he added.

 

“The Commission is collaborating with other anti-corruption agencies to investigate misappropriation of funds in defence sector procurement practices.

 

 

 

“ICPC in furtherance of its statutory mandate to prevent corruption by review of the systems, processes and practices of agencies of government and to direct improvement where they predispose to corruption has through its research and training arm convened this policy dialogue,” he noted.