By Olawale Lamina
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission, ICPC, has expressed displeasure over non-compliance by the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, based on findings from the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard, EICS, stressing that there will be measures that will compel them to comply with government directives.
This was disclosed on Thursday as the EICS scorecard was revealed in Abuja by ICPC’s Spokesperson Demola Bakare, that no MDA out of 330 MDAs that were assessed through physical deployment by ICPC teams achieved full compliance.
The EICS is a preventive tool used to assess and enhance the compliance of MDAs with ethical standards, policies, and anti-corruption measures, also aims to identify organisational gaps, provide actionable insights, and advise the government on policy development for oversight.
It was put in place to bring about self-evaluation and remedial actions within MDAs and to establish an objective assessment of MDAs to promote improvement.
The EICS assessment in this regard covered key indicators including Management Culture and Structure (MCS): Governance and executive management; Financial Management Systems (FMS): finance, revenue, and audit processes; and Administrative Systems (AS): Policies, ethics education, and whistle-blowing mechanisms.
Unfortunately, the outcome of the report showed that no MDA achieved full compliance, but only 29.55 per cent of MDAs captured attained substantial compliance, even as 51.62 per cent had partial compliance.
The EICS report also noted that 15.91 per cent showed poor compliance, while 2.92 per cent were non-compliant.
The report indicated common gaps such as a lack of whistle-blower policies, strategic plans, and effective stock verification units, lamenting that majority of the MDAs failed to observe any forms of system studies or implement financial and audit reports.
The ICPC spokesman stated that: “This year, 2024, the tool covered 323 responsive MDAs, with 15 MDAs non-responsive and categorised as high corruption risk.“It is imperative to inform you that this initiative has yielded some positive and value-driven impacts, and these are, but not limited to, increased awareness and compliance with anti-corruption measures, enhanced competition among MDAs to meet criteria, and improved procurement processes and data reliability.“
The Commission assured of the acknowledgement of the MDAs with substantial compliance, promising to deploy the tools to promote integrity and accountability.
Bakare also emphasized that, “Non-compliant MDAs will face necessary actions, including enforcement, to ensure adherence to government directives.
“We are certain that these efforts will continue to underline ICPC’s dedication to enhancing good governance and preventing corruption.”
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