‘Poor Funding Hampering Code Of Conduct Enforcement’ — CB’s Federal Commissioner

*CCB chief hails President for giving agency free hand

Inadequate funding is currently hampering the capacity of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to effectively deliver on their mandate of enforcing code of conduct among public officers, the CCB has said.

It said despite the challenge of inadequate funding, the CCB remained committed to ensuring that public officers live within their means and declare their assets, as required by the law.

CCB’s Federal Commissioner in charge of Monitoring, Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayema, said the CCB would not hesitate to investigate cases of code of conduct violation, irrespective of who is involved, even if it was the President.

Agbonayema, who spoke during his team’s monitoring visit to the CCT headquarters in Abuja, noted that the mandate of the CCB extends to ensuring that the President, governors and all other political office holders, without exception, declare their assets.

“Failure to declare assets is against the law and there is nothing like ‘I don’t know’. Those that have not declared their assets are acting against the Constitution.

“By the 14th Code of the Conduct Bureau’s mandate, all public officers are to declare their assets, without no exception,” he said.

Agbonayema, a former House of Representatives member, said he was aware that while fighting corruption, graft itself also fights back.

The Federal Commissioner assured all that the CCB would remain resolute in the execution of its mandate.

He warned public officers against defaulting on the requirement to declare their assets, in accordance with the relevant provisions of laws, to avoid being prosecuted.

The CCB chief hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for giving the agency the necessary free hand to function, adding that the non-interference by the Presidency has made the agency effective.