WRITTEN BY PROF. ANTHONY EZE

The anti-corruption campaign recently received additional boost when the Federal Government mapped out some measures to end endemic corruption in the country. One of such anti-corruption measures is the stoppage of secret ownership of companies and property in the country.

Others include the continuous audit of Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the establishment of Freedom of Information (FoI) desk offices in the 106 government agencies in compliance with the FoI Act and the setting up of a presidential committee on asset recovery and developing a procedure and guidelines to ensure that all government funds are accounted for, using the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

To achieve this objective, the government is said to be working in partnership with the government of the United Kingdom to build an open beneficial ownership register that will house ownership data, aimed at ending anonymous company ownership in the country. It is good that reports say the ongoing audit of Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies has helped the government save about two hundred billion naira by eliminating ghost workers as at 2018.

Government is therefore urged to deploy to good use all recovered looted funds. In addition to using them to finance the budget, government can dedicate some of them to revamp infrastructure such as roads and bridges. They can be used to address the decay in the health and education sectors. Government should also use the money to improve the standard of living of all Nigerians.

Government should close all secret companies operating in the country. Apart from the fact that secret companies evade tax payment, the public might be exposed to the sharp practices of those secret companies.

In fact, government should be blamed for the operation of secret companies in Nigeria. The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) should rise to the challenge and stop the operation of secret companies. As the registrar of all companies, it is in a vintage position to know secret companies operating in the country.

Therefore, the indication that it is working in partnership with the government of the United Kingdom to end the menace is good. Ending the ownership of secret companies in the country is a good step to curb corruption in Nigeria. It will assist the government with accurate data of all companies operating in Nigeria. It will also boost the nation’s tax revenue.

Besides these measures to strengthen the government’s anti-corruption campaign, the government should be more transparent in the handling of all recovered loots. That is the only way it can assure the citizenry that the war on corruption is on course. It must update Nigerians on all its actions, especially on the recovery of looted funds and assets.

Nigerians should as well monitor government’s programmes and demand accountability from their leaders at all levels of government. There is no doubt that systemic corruption is a global problem.

In 2017, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that between eight hundred billion dollars and two hundred trillion dollars, translating to about 4 per cent of global domestic product is laundered globally each year. It is also estimated that corruption alone costs the African continent over one hundred and forty-eight billion dollars per annum.

Since financial corruption is not restricted within one country, the Federal Government’s recent call for the reform of Article 51 of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and Article 16 of the African Union Convention for Preventing and Combating Corruption for easier repatriation of stolen assets is commendable. There is the need for nations to cooperate in the repatriation of stolen funds.

No related posts.