ICPC chairman: Many prospective perm secs indicted for corruption, substance abuse

Bolaji Owasanoye, chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), says findings have shown that many prospective permanent secretaries have been indicted for “financial impropriety and corrupt practices”.

Owasanoye said this on Tuesday during a national summit on diminishing corruption in the public service, organised by ICPC in collaboration with the office of the secretary to the government of the federation (OSGF) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), with support from the MacArthur Foundation.

The summit, which held in Abuja, also featured the presentation of the public service integrity award.

Speaking during the summit, the ICPC chairman said the anti-graft agency is collaborating with the office of head of civil service of the federation to flush out fake appointments for the position of permanent secretaries.

“As part of the efforts to sanitise the public service and upscale integrity, the commission has been collaborating with the OHCSF to flush out fake appointments and screen candidates for appointment to position of permanent secretaries, amongst other initiatives,” he said.

“The findings thus far indicate that many prospective appointees are implicated for financial impropriety, corrupt practice, failure of code of conduct standards, and substance abuse.

“The commitment of the head of service to clean up the stable by effective pre-appointment screening is commendable and ICPC will continue to play its part.”

The ICPC chairman also said the commission has been working to minimise corruption in education sector, including sexual harassment in tertiary institutions.

“Corruption in education manifests in different ways such as recruitment of unqualified or unfit persons to teach at primary, secondary or tertiary levels; admission racketeering; examination malpractice; diversion of revenue for and within the sector; operation of illegal academic institutions especially at the tertiary level; abuse of power and procurement rules by management and governing councils both of academic or regulatory institutions, etc.,” he said.

“In response to the recent epidemic of sexual harassment in the education sector, ICPC has constituted a special team on investigation and prosecution of sexual harassment in secondary and tertiary institutions.

“In collaboration with civil society, we are in the process of introducing a model policy on sexual harassment for academic institutions to adopt.

“We have also secured some major convictions including of a professor.”