The Center for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch, a civil society organisation, has called for the immediate prosecution of MDAs and public officers involved in the padding of the national budgets for 2021 and 2022.
The prosecution, according to the organisation, will serve as a deterrent and prevent willful acts of corruption in the nation’s budgeting process.
This comes on the heels of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) revealing that it discovered infractions in the 2021 and 2022 appropriations acts.
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The request, which was made in a statement signed by the organization’s Head of Public Affairs, Victor Agi, earlier this week, insisted that such acts of corruption should not be ignored.
The statement read in part: “While the Center welcomes this move by the Commission, it equally urged for more preemptive actions by anti-corruption agencies to address infractions by MDAs and salvage the nation’s economy, which is currently on a precipice according to a recent state of the economy report by the Ministry of Finance.
“Although the ICPC boss disclosed that the names of MDAs involved in these acts of corruption would be released to the Committee, we equally demand that these names be publicized for public scrutiny. Public officers who are found to be culpable should immediately be prosecuted to serve as deterrence.”
The statement also called on the stakeholders to strengthen mechanisms that promote transparency and accountability in the public sector.
