Kunle Aderinokun
3 April 2008
Abuja — The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has asked members of health committee of both the Senate and House of Representatives to resign their membership, if found culpable in the N300 million embezzlement scandal rocking the Health Ministry.
ICAN made this demand as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) revealed that it had been able to recover N13 billion public funds from corrupt officials.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja at a seminar on Enhancing Economic Growth through Anti-Corruption Measures, ICAN President, Prince Abiodun Babington-Ashaye, advised the affected legislators to resign honourably for betraying the trust of the people.
Babington-Ashaye gave kudos to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua for the courage exhibited especially in the recent purging of his cabinet. According to him, "We salute the courage of the President for what he has done thus far particularly in the recent purging of his cabinet. We expect those culpable in the Ministry of Health and the National Assembly to gracefully resign their positions for betraying the trust of the people."
Babington-Ashaye however expressed the hope that "this action of the President will not be a one-off incident if we are desirous of raising the credibility of public officials and institutions particularly in the perception of the international community and for our own good."
"We all have to join this great battle if the scourge of poverty pervading the society is to be effectively curbed. We urge the National Assembly to also reaffirm its support for this battle by passing the Public Procurement Bill which is crucial to the attainment of value for money in the public sector," he added.
Babington-Ashaye said, on its own part, ICAN would "continue to draw attention to the evils of corruption in line with our social responsibility and sanction any of our members found to have compromised his/her professional status such that the public interest is protected."
He explained that the theme of the seminar was chosen "not only in appreciation of the havoc corruption has wreaked on the Nigerian economy in the form of unbriddled larceny and criminal diversion to private use of scarce public funds generated from local and international sources, but also to contribute towards the ongoing debate on the way forward for the country."
According to him, "the current decay in national infrastructural facilities is a fallout both of several years of neglect as well as massive improprieties by public officials as revealed at the ongoing House Representatives' Public Hearing on the Electricity Sector."
"No one is insulated from the pains of this failure by the public utility company. Yet, the case of the electricity sector is not an isolated one."
Welcoming participants, a member of ICPC, Dr. Uriah Angulu, said the commission had been able to recover N13 billion from public bodies through its efforts at checkmating the incidence of corruption in the system. He however stated that there were still challenges ahead in the fight against corruption as what had been done was a drop in the ocean compared to what lay ahead but noted that, "it's the beginning of good things to come."
He said: "With the establishment of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in 2000 and subsequently other anti-corruption structures, changes are already being experienced in the way public business is conducted in the country.
"Economic inroads are being made: most of the nation's foreign debt has been written off, ICPC has recovered over N13 billion from public bodies. This is money that would have been lost but for the systems' studies efforts of the commission."
"We can now say that the principle of due process is currently being followed in the award of contracts. All these positive results might seem like a drop in the ocean when compared to what remains to be done but all the same it is a start and the beginning of good things to come," he added.
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