Fighting corruption requires all hands to be on deck – Zainab Ahmed

By Our Reporter

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National
Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed said  on Wednesday that
the fight against corruption required that all hands must be on deck in view of the “multi-faceted nature of the scourge”.

Speaking at a virtual sensitization programme of Association of National Accountants of Nigeria(ANAN ) in Abuja, the minister noted that given the overarching nature of corruption in the development and wellbeing of the society, the scourge must be tackled frontally stressing that “only a drastic resolve and the collective action from ALL of us can help in stemming the monster.”

In her keynote address at the ANAN programme titled, “Fighting Corruption Requires Accountants to Act”, Ahmed
who said the fight should not be left alone for Accountants warned that “If we cannot kill corruption, corruption can kill us.”

She said it was in the light of destabilising nature of the scourge, that the present administration of President
Muhammad Buhari made the fight against corruption one of its core Agendas and topmost priorities since inception of the administration in 2015 to date.

The minister said: “the anti-graft war has witnessed several convictions by our Courts of law championed by investigation Agencies. Some of the arraignments and convictions involve high profile figures; including judges, federal ministers, state governors, top civil/public servants, military officers etc. Recoveries
were also made through investigations and orders of forfeiture.

“The ‘Whistle Blower’ policy is another corruption fighting strategy initiated by this administration in 2016 to encourage and reward the exposure of financial crimes by the general public through offering the whistleblowers some financial rewards for information that leads to successful recoveries.

“A maximum reward of 5% of the recovered loot is currently payable once proven that the recovery was achieved directly through the information obtained from the whistle blowers or through the information provided by them.

“The policy also entails maximum protection for the whistle blowers that may be threatened, harmed or suffers losses for exposing any corrupt and/or fraudulent practices. So far, the policy is recording major successes as a citizenry collaborative anticorruption strategy. Nigerians are once more assured of the sincerity of government and should therefore feel comfortable at increasing the contribution of non oil and gas sector to our revenue profile.”

Mrs Ahmed congratulated the Association on the recent licensing of ANAN University as one of the new
private universities recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), believing  that the University will advance specialization in the science of accounting and its practice.

She urged ANAN  to build on the successes and reputation of the Nigerian College of Accountancy, adding that the college as a specialized institution dedicated to Accountancy training “has remained a
vanguard in producing quality accountants that are impacting in the economic development of the country.”