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There’s more compliance to asset declaration law under Buhari, says CCB

By Abosede Musari, Abuja
16 April 2016   |   2:17 am
The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has said that it has recorded a sharp increase in the number of civil servants that declare their assets as required by law since the commencement of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration..
President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari

The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has said that it has recorded a sharp increase in the number of civil servants that declare their assets as required by law since the commencement of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration

The Bureau has also disclosed that it was at the final stage of reviewing the assets so far declared by civil servants. Chairman of the Bureau, Sam Saba, made the disclosures in Abuja on Thursday while receiving participants of the Policy, Strategy and Leadership Course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Study (NIPSS), Kuru, who were on study tour to the three main anti-corruption agencies in the country.

He noted that the CCB has gone the extra mile not only to review assets declared by civil servants, but also the liabilities, adding that it was expensive as the Bureau engaged professionals such as the media, estate valuers and surveyors, engineers, lawyers and accountants during the exercise.

According to him, the CCB, like most agencies, has the challenge of funding which has hindered it from performing as it would have wanted to.
“Fighting corruption is expensive and for the CCB, the funding it receives vis-a-vis the huge responsibilities it is expected to execute is far inadequate. To distribute asset declaration forms, to receive and examine the completed forms in respect of all public officers under the Federal Government and the 774 local government councils and to verify the declarations, even if it’s a portion of it is a difficult task.

“The Bureau is also to investigate petitions received from the public. To monitor the actions and behaviours of public office holders to get them to comply with the provisions of the Code is by no means a simple task. All the above activities are cost consuming. Though central to its mandate and functions, the CCB has no enough funds to execute them as effectively and efficiently as it may wish,” he explained.

Responding, leader of the delegation and Head of NIPSS Consult, Asipita Umar thanked the CCB leadership for receiving the delegates. Umar also noted that the Course has chosen to understudy the three main anti-corruption agencies in order to know what policies are driving the anti corruption efforts of government.

He said the participants comprise middle cadre officers from government service sectors such as the Military, Customs, Police, BPE and other sectors, whose analytic skills need to be sharpened in preparation to taking up top cadre jobs of government such as headship of organisations.

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