ICPC Ranks Ministry Of Justice And Finance Low In ‘Ethics, Integrity Compliance’

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission, ICPC, has scored the Federal Ministries of Justice and Ministry of Finance low in its assessment of ethics and integrity standards in public institutions.

In a recent report titled “Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard of Federal MDAs, 2020”, the anti-graft agency evaluated Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the areas of Management Culture and Structure (MCS), Financial Management Systems (FMS) and Administrative Systems (AS) to see how they fared in ethical conducts as public institutions.

The 21 ministries appraised include Labour, Trade and Investment, Education, Health, Niger Delta, Federal Capital Territory Administration, Petroleum Resources, Budget and National Planning, Science and Technology, Foreign Affairs, Communication and Digital Economy, Environment, Water Resources, Defence, Power, Aviation, Youth and Sports Development, Women Affairs, Justice, Works and Housing, Mines and Steel Development, Finance and Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

FCT, Communication and Digital Economy, Water Resources, Labour and Trade and Investment were ranked the highest in ethical standards while Ministry of Justice, Finance, Environment, Aviation, and Head of Civil Service were ranked zero in compliance.

The report revealed that “None of the MDAs attained full compliance while 27 MDAs attained substantial compliance, 77 MDAs attained partial compliance and 106 non-compliance.”

Also, 143 MDAs do not have defined and domesticated policies regarding acceptance of gifts, donations and hospitality which is a prime vulnerability point for corruption.

“107 MDAs did not comply with the government directive to create an Asset Verification Unit.” the report further stated.

Furthermore, 96 MDAs do not have fully computerized systems, thus encouraging huge paper trail and falsification of records and “101 MDAs did not submit their audited account to the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation and Public Accounts Committee for the last three years”

The Ethics Compliance and Integrity Scorecard (ECIS) was developed by ICPC and is annually deployed in selected government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The ECIS measures how MDAs comply with ethical, integrity, statutory, regulatory and policy standards & requirements. The goal is to diminish corruption risk, improve ethics and integrity benchmark & improve service delivery.

It was deployed between July & Sept. 2020 in 352 MDAs. However, according to ICPC, only 220 MDAs responded despite a grace period of three weeks for submission.

• Click on the link to download the latest 2020 report