The Federal Government has saved N594.09 billion from whistle blowing policy since its introduction in 2016.
The Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Muhammed Dikwa made this known Thursday in Abuja at a workshop on the overview of whistle blowing policy in Nigeria with the theme “Implementation of the whistle blower policy in Nigeria, Issues, Challenges and Way forward”.
Dikwa who said whistle blowing policy has come to stay in Nigeria, disclosed that Nigeria has joined other countries of the world to accept the policy as a global acceptable norm.
He stated that what prompted the introduction of the policy and the need for its legislation was the Federal Government’s commitment to reducing cost of governance and bringing wastages and leakages to the barest minimum.
According to the Permanent Secretary, the Federal Government decided to introduce the policy in order to fight corruption, and other financial crimes, such as violation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), elimination of ghost workers syndrome, staff collecting double salaries in more than one organization and retirees without proper records but still collecting salaries,
Dikwa noted that the policy has led to the recoveries of salaries from retired diplomats for almost two years to the tune of N192m, non remittances by MDAs, amongst other crimes, adding that, the policy has drastically reduced corruption in both civil and criminal cases.
While enumerating the challenges encountered during the course of implementing the policy, the Permanent Secretary highlighted lack of proper legal framework, poor funding, lack of coordination and diverse information among relevant organisations, not following proper channel to give information, adding that, sometimes information given were fake, which however contradicts investigations.
Dikwa further said the whistle blowing and witness protection bill 2019, was being put together to make the policy effective and provide legal backing/administrative guide and therefore urged the participants to critically review the draft bill and make additional inputs to be forward same to the National Assembly for passage and enactment.
The Permanent Secretary said the whistle blowing policy which is a work in progress has come to stay and urged the participants to work assiduously towards legalizing and institutionalizing the whistle blowing policy to meet international best practices which other comity of nations have adopted over the years.
In a presentation the Chairman of the Whistle blowing draft Committee, Peculiar Ohabor, a Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Justice, said the draft bill which has 18 bits and 107 sections sprang up as a result of societies evolving.
Ohabor noted that countries like Canada, Senegal, United Kingdom, USA, and European Union have already accepted the policy and stressed the need for Nigeria to legalize and institutionalize it.
Hassan Dodo, Deputy Director (Information), Ministry of Finance in a statement said the meeting was attended by top Management staff, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Justice, representatives from Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) , National Financial Intelligent Unit (NFIU),DSS and Members of Civil Society.
James Kwen, Abuja
