The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has rated the Ministry of Education, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and National Centre For Disease Control (NCDC), low in its Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS) of Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for 2022.
The assessment is said to be part of the Commission’s preventive mandate as provided in Section 6(b)-(d) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000. It said it would also reinforce the drive to strengthen probity, accountability and transparency in public service and entities.
The report which was recently released by ICPC reads, “Since 2019, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission annually deploys the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS) in Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to assess their compliance to extant ethical, integrity, statutory, policy and regulatory standards and practices.
“This is in line with the Commission’s preventive mandate as provided in Section 6(b)-(d) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 while also reinforcing the drive to strengthen probity, accountability and transparency in public service and entities.
“The goal of the EICS deployment in MDAs is to diminish corruption risks, system abuse and revive ethics and integrity benchmarks in government offices while ensuring good service delivery.
“The tool was deployed between April and July 2022 in 360 MDAs with special focus on the education sector in consonance with the 4th National Summit on diminishing corruption in the Public Sector themed “Reducing Corruption in the Education Sector”.
“260 MDAs responded and were rated according to degree of compliance. 52 MDAs who declined to respond were classified as “High Corruption Risk” (HCR) and are flagged for the attention of the public and for further inquiries and actions.
“Public entities through this medium, are reminded that the deployment of the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard is vital to building good ethical structures in their organizations.
“They are therefore encouraged to adapt ethics and integrity compliance practices into their systems to reduce corruption in public offices and in service delivery,” it said.
A breakdown of the report by The Quest Times revealed that the Ministry of Education, NBS and 50 other MDAs scored zero percent in the ranking, placing them on the Non-Responsive MDAs with High Corruption Risk category.
Other MDAs in the High Corruption Risk category include; National Pension Commission, Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, National Population Commission, National Centre For Disease Control (NCDC), Universal Basic Education Commission, Federal Civil Service Commission etc.
However, the index showed that 260 MDAs responded and were rated according to degree of compliance with the scoring criteria.
National Lottery Trust Fund scored highest with 86.05 percent, while the other MDAs are: Ministry of Environment, State House Abuja, National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal University Dutse, Ministry of Defence, University of Benin, Petroleum Training Institute, National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency, Kaduna etc.
Download full report below