PACAC: 8,000 whistleblowers came forward in one year

No fewer than 8,000 whistleblowers were recorded by the federal government in the last one year, the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC) has said.

Bolaji Owasanoye, executive secretary of PACAC, told NAN that the whistleblower’s policy had succeeded resoundingly.

Owasanoye said: “Just a few weeks ago, PACAC, in collaboration with federal ministry of finance, looked at one year of that policy.

“We looked at what has worked, where it has not worked very well, what we can improve and it came there that the policy has been resoundingly successful.

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t review where we were, which was what we were doing at that event. Over 8,000 whistles received, some of it have yielded very good results.

“We also looked at the fact that the policy is not directed at pursuing cash recoveries only. But at misgovernance, abuse of power, position, violation of regulations and all that. The policy covers everything.”

He said the policy had been a stop-gap measure, pending the time it gets a legislation.

Owasanoye also explained that a whistleblower might not get up to five percent of the recovered loot if the amount is very huge.

He said: “The truth of the matter is that the parameters have never been varied. PACAC prepared the whistle blower’s policy.

“The policy states that a whistleblower who gives a whistle that leads to cash recovery can earn up to five percent of the amount recovered. Indeed, there’s a scale.

“The higher the amount that is recovered, the lower that you get. But if your whistle leads to the recovery of a lower amount, you can get the maximum of a five percent.

“So there’s never been problem, just that the public didn’t understand how this policy is supposed to operate. So there’s a scale. So if you blow the whistle and something like a billion naira, you can earn up to the five percent.

“If it’s above a billion, under five billion, you get may be up to 2.5 percent or four percent; it’s graduated. And all over the world, that’s the way it is.

“When your information leads to a very high recovery, the amount goes down. There’s been no dispute about people getting what is due them”.

He said of the 8,000 whistles received, not all led to recoveries or were credible.

“You never can tell when what you’re pursuing will lead to something significant, so you can’t afford to ignore,” he said.

“That’s why the whole whistleblower arrangement, all the law enforcement agencies are part of it and investigations can take a little while.”