Blessing Iruoma, Port Harcourt
Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, has urged staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to embrace good work ethics as an important anti-corruption measure.
He made the call, on Wednesday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, while addressing management staff of the NDDC at a two- day sensitisation workshop for public servants in NDDC.
Speaking on the topic, ‘Official Corruption, Cause, Method, Effect and Remedy’, the EFCC boss stressed that organisational goals could only be achieved if employees embraced good work ethics.
“Corruption is a monster which if not dealt with, will bring many organisations down. Employees should embrace good work ethics and perform their work with zeal and hard work. With this, I am sure result will be achieved and counted”, he said.
Represented by the Port Harcourt Zonal Commander of the EFCC, Aliyu Naibi, Bawa said that even with good work ethics, corruption might still rear its head in organisations, and to tackle it, “tough disciplinary measures should be put in place such that anyone found to have embezzled money or misused his office or any property should be handed over to the relevant authority for questioning”.
The EFCC boss laid bare causes of corruption, linking them to the “Fraud Triangle of Opportunity, Incentive and Rationalisation”.
He decried the erosion of trust, weakened democracy, economic stagnation, inequality, poverty, social division and environmental degradation as direct consequences of corruption and reiterated his commitment to “the fight against the menace called corruption until we have a Nigeria free of economic and financial crimes”.
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In his presentation, Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau, Prof. Muhammad Isah, said public officers can only be measured on anti- corruption scales, if their assets are declared.
Isah, who spoke on ‘Asset Declaration as a Veritable Instrument to Prevent Corruption in Public Services’, stressed the importance of asset declaration by public officers.
According to him, “Asset declaration is an old scheme. It is a tool to fight corruption. It is a yardstick by which a public officer is measured”.
He also explained that unexplained wealth by public officers can only be assessed through the assets they declared. “Yoù cannot effectively interrogate corruption cases without asset declaration. When assets are declared, prevention of corruption and unexplained wealth is made easier”.
The workshop, was declared open by the NDDC Interim Administrator and Chief Executive Officer, Effiong Okon Akwa.
