FCT Signs Anti-Corruption Pact
From Andy Ekugo in Abuja
The minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mallam Nasi el-Rufai yesterday signed an anti-corruption pact with the Convention on Business Integrity, making the MFCT the first ministry to sign the anti corruption pact in the country.
By this development, the ministry has unequivocally submitted itself, staff and contractors to transparency and accountability.
The minister at the signing ceremony in Abuja yesterday said that the country has got a place in the history of democracy that corruption should not be allowed anymore.
El-Rufai said that the "future of our children and our children's children is more important than the parochial interest of few people".
The convention stipulates that staff of the ministry and its contractors should not offer or take bribes and that it is a punishable offence for anyone, either in the ministry or in the employment of its contractors not to report any cases of the demand or acceptance of bribes.
Consequently, he further stressed that with the blessing of President Obasanjo, the integrity pact which is being piloted with the FCT will trickle down to all sectors of the country. With the FCT, "all contractors must join and sign this convention if they want to do business with us. If you want to do a contract of N50 million and above, from the 31 August 2005, you must be at least an associate member of the convention for business integrity".
Baroness Chalker of Wallasey represented by Mr. Rogers Martins said that "Fighting corruption is no easy matter. It is however essential if we want to be able to hold our heads up and look our fellow human beings in the face. We cannot allow corruption and lack of good governance triumph".
The Cbi, an anti-corruption non-governmental organisation started in 1995 in collaboration with Transparency Nigeria and is aimed at strengthening transparency, accountability and civility in business, public life and the rest of civil society.
By belonging to the Convention, contractors involved in contracts of N50 million and above would be required to join the Convention and pledge not to offer bribe to anybody to influence the process. Also, the FCT being the pilot ministry in the exercise is expected to show glowing example which el-Rufai said has begun with the recent right sizing through restructuring of the staff of the ministry.
Approved by President Obasanjo in May 2004, the minister also revealed that other government agencies would be required to join the Convention. "We will not do it as a shock therapy. We will be piloting and others would join soon," he said.
Already, 12 organisations and four individuals preaching transparency and accountability in their undertakings are members. These are Cadbury, Pfizer West Africa, Accenture, Agusto and co. Dunlop, Risk Watch and co. Prominent Securities, SAP AG, Lagos Business School among others. Individual members are Professor Pat Utomi, Dr. Christopher Kolade, Mr. Akintola Williams and Dr. Micheal Omolayole.
According to Mr. Soji Apampa the Managing Director of SAP Nigeria Limited, 'the Convention on Business Integrity seeks to fight corruption by providing alternatives to the system that has entrenched corruption." He also said that the endorsement of the MFCT is unprecedented and will make it the first such initiative by non-state actors to be fully supported not only by business and civil society but also government".
By belonging to the Convention, FCT and its contractors have pledged to "ensure that our policies and procedures are such as to enhance transparency and accountability, will not offer bribes or any other form of inducement to any official, whether public or private in connection with bids and businesses, will not permit any one to do that on their behalf, will in furtherance of this, issue a directive to all employees, agents and other representatives reminding them of their legal and professional duty not to demand or accept bribes of any description, and to remind them that to do would constitute an offence against the laws of Nigeria which will be punished with the full force of the law". Also that they "will formally undertake to issue instructions to all its employees and agents or other representatives to inform the corporation of any corrupt practices taking place in the organisation, will ensure that only individuals with proven records of trust worthiness, truthfulness and integrity are employed in every sphere of its operation, will reward those employees, agents or its other representatives who show themselves to be upright in all their dealings with and on behalf of the organisation or corporation and finally will cooperate with the law enforcement agencies to ensure that corrupt individuals in their establishment are brought to book and face the full force of the law".
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