Adeosun: We’ve received over 5,000 whistleblowing tips but could only act on 365

Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, says the federal government has received over 5,000 whistleblowing tips but could only 365, which were considered actionable.

Since December 2016, when the policy was instituted in the country, the government says it has made first batch payment of N375.8 million to 20 whistleblowers who provided information that led to the recovery over N11.6 billion.

Adeosun who spoke on “The Whistleblower Policy and its Implications for Public Servants” at the Bureau for Public Service Reform lunch time seminar, disclosed that the second batch of payment is on the the way.

She disclosed that out of the 365 actionable tips received, over half of them came from public servants touching on issues such as contract inflation, ghost workers, illegal recruitments, misappropriation of funds, illegal sale of Government assets, diversion of revenues, and violation of TSA regulations, amongst others.

Adeosun, who commended the civil servants for being patriotic by volunteering information that was yielding result, however, there is a long way to go adding, “we must do more”.

“Part of our work is to analyse trends and take corrective actions. For example many of the salary, tax and pension under remittance cases shared a common thread,” she said.

“Several cases where Institutions were found to have insufficient funds to meet there obligations often had illegal recruitments which bloated the wage bill and agencies responded by part paying or short paying salaries, whilst applying to FG for salary shortfall payments. We are revising our procedures for approval of recruitment, which will improve our budgeting and control.

“Equally in many cases where revenue has been diverted to accounts outside TSA, we have reviewed our reconciliation and receipting processes. So the information being provided is useful in driving process imporvements.

“If as a civil servant, you have information about a possible misconduct or violation that has occurred, is on-going, or is about to occur, we implore you to come forward and report it.”

The finance minister explained that the nation’s whistle blower policy is consistent with many other countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States.

She said in line with ensuring that the right capacity is built and follow best practice, the Whistleblower Unit consisting of representatives from the various investigative agencies, is expected to go on a study tour to Australia to understand how they have been able to successfully implement the policy.

“We will continue to evolve and improve on the programme based on our experiences and learnings from other jurisdictions.

“The reward scheme has also acted as an incentive for disclosures – a whistleblower is entitled to between 2.5% and 5% of the amount recovered if the information provided is original and directly leads to the recovery of stolen or concealed funds or assets.

“Even in the payment process we have built in protection to ensure that whistleblowers identity remains confidential and that bank and other details can not be used to trace information providers.”

Adeosun warned that in as much as the government is keen for officers to provide information, there are serious consequences for providing false or malicious information including the possibility of prosecution.

“We must ensure that people are not victims of personal grudges or private misunderstandings. While we recognise that whistleblowing alone is not a solution to corruption, it is one of the tools that can improve governance in the public service.

“Now you might be thinking to yourself, ‘So how does this affect me?’. If I don’t have a tip, what role can I play? I say to you today, that each and every one of us has a key role to play in rebuilding the integrity of the public service.

“The human resource department must handle complaints of retaliation with speed and confidentiality, ensuring that all complaints go through the right channel.

“All issues must be adequately investigated and referred to the appropriate disciplinary body or panel of inquiry; Finance and Accounts must ensure that they are constantly improving their processes in response to tips; Internal audit procedures must be strengthened and the Bureau of Public Service Reforms must coordinate and ensure full acceptance, knowledge and implementation of the programme.”

Joe Abah, the director general, Bureau for Public Service Reforms (BPSR), said through the lunch time reform seminar series, the Federal Road Safety Corps has been able to reduce the time for the issuance of driver’s license from six months to one month.

He said also working with Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Nigerians can now get tax clearance online.

Abah said study shows that if process weaknesses are reduced in the civil service corruption can be reduced, adding that the Whistle blower policy is to reward patriots and punish offenders.