*CCB Says It Lacks Power To Make Assets Declaration Public
*Ozekhome SAN Describes Buhari Anti-Corruption Posture As Insincere
*CSOs Demand Transparency From Presidency
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The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has provided clarification on its inability to publicly disclose the assets declared by public officials. According to the Act that established the bureau, it is prohibited from making such information public. However, officials are allowed to voluntarily make their asset declaration forms public.
The explanation was given as public officials, including the President, Muhammadu Buhari; his deputy, Prof Yemi Osinbajo; and others, prepare to declare their assets before leaving office, in compliance with the law. Speaking in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, a senior CCB official, Veronica Kato, stated that the bureau could only release such documents by court order in cases where a public official is being investigated or tried for corruption related to their acquired assets.
Kato emphasized that the law governing the CCB prevents the bureau from making the assets declared by public officials public. The bureau’s guidelines outline the conditions upon which the assets declaration is constituted, and these guidelines must be followed.
“The assets declaration form is to be provided to public officials based on terms and conditions established by the National Assembly. Currently, these terms and conditions do not permit the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to disclose the form to the public.
Additionally, the form is considered private and confidential.” Kato acknowledged that while journalists may be interested in accessing such information, the CCB cannot make it public as it would be a violation of the owner’s privacy. However, if a petition or other legal demand requires the declaration of a particular official’s assets, the CCB can make the information available for investigation purposes.
Kato also noted that public officials are free to voluntarily make their assets declaration forms public. Nonetheless, the CCB has been in operation for over 25 years and has never made such information public because it lacks the authority to do so.
According to her, the bureau cannot make public the assets declared by public officials as stipulated by the Act that established it. However, officials have the option to make their forms public. Kato noted that the CCB could only make such documents available by a court order in a case where a public official was under investigation or trial for alleged corruption relating to the acquired assets.
Kato clarified that the assets declaration form is a private document and confidential. Journalists may want access to such information, but making it public is beyond the CCB’s power due to the breach of the owner’s confidential details. Only the incumbent President and Vice President can decide to make their assets public when leaving office.
“The CCB’s primary function is to ensure that public officials declare their assets to the bureau, take custody of the asset declaration forms, and verify those assets. If red flags appear, the CCB investigates and prosecutes the public officials for contravening the code of conduct rule. Kato stated that citizens can write a petition to the CCB if they suspect that a public official acquired assets with illicit funds and through the abuse of their office. The CCB investigates and compares what the official declared with what they have if we can establish beyond reasonable doubt that the assets were illicitly acquired, they take the case to court.”
Before the 2015 general election, President Buhari pledged to publicly declare his assets and liabilities if voted into power. After much criticism of his refusal to keep to his promise after he was sworn in, the Presidency eventually published Buhari and Osinbajo’s assets. Details of Buhari’s declared assets were made public, showing that the assets were valued at less than N30m at the time of his inauguration on May 29. Osinbajo declared N94m and $900,000 held in his bank accounts. He also declared properties and shareholdings in several private companies based in Lagos, including Octogenerium Limited, Windsor Grant Limited, Tarapolsa, Vistorion Limited, Aviva Limited and MTN Nigeria.
“His personal vehicles are one Infinity four-wheel drive SUV, one Mercedes Benz and a Prado SUV.”
In May 2019, before his inauguration for a second term, Buhari submitted a second set of assets declaration forms to the CCB. It was stated that the declaration showed no significant changes in assets as declared by him in 2015.
“There are no new houses, no new bank accounts at home and abroad, and there are no new shares acquired,” he said.
Human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), said the President’s failure to declare his assets publicly, ab initio, had a negative impact on his anti-corruption agenda.
In an interview with Saturday PUNCH recently, Ozekhome recalled that Buhari had led an anti-corruption campaign in 2015 before he came into power, where he promised Nigerians that he would publicly declare his assets when sworn in, but that he did not do so immediately as promised.
He stated, “Nigerians should have known from that first singular act that Buhari’s government will not be truthful and sincere to Nigerians. This was a man who said if he was declared the president of Nigeria, he would declare his assets openly and publicly. But when he got into office, he declared his assets, but refused to make them public until Nigerians pressurised him, went on television and wrote that he should make them public so as to show good example, leadership by example not by precept.”
He said the public declaration of his assets would symbolise transparency on the President’s part, serving as a yardstick to weigh the quantum by which the assets had appreciated or depreciated in the past eight years.
Another human rights lawyer, Mr Jiti Ogunye, noted that despite the fact that it was not a statutory requirement for the CCB to publish such information, if the Freedom of Information Act was active, it would have empowered Nigerians to have access to such forms and scrutinise the assets.
He noted that such information was important for the mass media and whistleblowers to keep an eye on the acquisitions of the public officials.
He added, “My view remains that if assets are declared and the forms are kept in a file, far away from public scrutiny, how will members of the public be able to volunteer information that someone in a public office has had more assets than we know? How will whistleblowers be able to function?
“Law enforcement agencies demand information from the citizens. They say they act on the information acquired and cooperation of the citizens, even the military in the war against insurgents solicits information from the people.”
The Chairman, Transition Monitoring Group, Auwal Rafsanjani, harped on the importance of making assets declaration forms public if the administration was keen on its anti-corruption campaign.
Rafsanjani said, “Any government that says it wants to fight corruption must look for a way to ensure a standard approach to assets declaration. Assets declaration is very important to minimise the level of corruption in the society because if public officials don’t declare their assets, there is a likelihood that they can accumulate as much as they can while in office at the expense of the public. So, it is important that public officials, including the President, Vice-President, Senate President and others must declare their assets and it should be done publicly.
“It is worrisome that this government promised to fight corruption, but it has not been effective in the fight against corruption and asset declaration was not prioritised.”
In his contribution, the Chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said the existing law did not compel them to make the declaration public but that if such forms were made public, it would help in the fight against corruption.
He added, “The Code of Conduct Bureau Act makes it mandatory for people to declare their assets before they assume office and when they are leaving. The law doesn’t make it compulsory that they should make it public, but ideally it should be made public for people to be able to check their assets, confirm under or over-declaration and if they do not agree with the declaration, they can go to the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
“What we are advocating is that all assets declarations must be made public and should be verified by the Code of Conduct Bureau. The law permits the Code of Conduct Bureau to ascertain their claims, but are they really doing it?
“It is not good for our anti-corruption drive that the CCB always makes excuses that they do not have enough hands or adequate funding to do the verification of the declared assets. That is antithetical to the spirit of assets declaration, because if people claim ownership of some assets and there is no way to verify those declarations, it is as good as useless and it means they can also do anticipatory declaration, knowing that when they get into office, they will acquire more properties. It is unfortunate.”
Also, the Deputy Director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Kolawole Oluwadare, in an interview with one of our correspondents stressed that public declaration of assets should be made compulsory for every public office holder.
He said SERAP would expect the CCB to make Buhari, Osinbajo and other public office holders to publicly declare their assets at the end of their tenure to give room for transparency and accountability as such documents would be made available for public scrutiny.
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