Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has conducted a two-day capacity-building workshop on corruption prevention and optimal resource management in local government administration for Akwa Ibom State local government officials.
ICPC chairman, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu, revealed this at a workshop organised by the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN), a training and research arm of the Commission, in collaboration with the Foundation for Transparency and Accountability (FTA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), and with support from the Akwa Ibom State government.
Dr Adamu, who was represented by the director of the Systems Study and Review Department of the commission, Mr Olusegun Adigun, said the commission had designed the workshop in order to help principal officers of the Akwa Ibom State local government councils identify corruption risks in their domains so as to develop appropriate prevention measures.
He said, “In order to avoid both internal and external pitfalls as principal officers of the Akwa ibom State local government areas, a gathering of this nature will avail you ample opportunity to share ideas, experiences and strategies on how to handle issues, particularly institutionalized internal practices that are traps, set to make you complicit in future corrupt practices.”
The ICPC chairman, in response to the full financial autonomy of the third tier of government in Nigeria, set up the Accountability and Corruption Prevention Programme for Local Government (ACPP-LG), a corruption prevention mechanism for proactive disclosure of relevant information and compliance to ensure transparency and accountability in the operations and decision-making processes of local governments.
He further revealed that the ACPP-LG initiative would help monitor and evaluate local governments’ performance, ensuring continuous improvement and responsiveness to citizens’ needs.
He said, “ACPP-LG has a robust citizen engagement component, which will enhance the effective communication of the local government activities to the public, fostering trust and understanding as well as active and continuous public participation in governance and decision-making.”
ICPC spokesperson Demola Bakare said in his goodwill message that the chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Akwa Ibom State, Dr Uwemedimo Udo, thanked the ICPC for organising the workshop specifically for all local government principal officers from the state. He assured the commission that they were ready to put into practice everything they learned.
According to Udo, “We do not trivialise this training at all. This is due to the multi-faceted impact of corruption bedevilling our country. This is why all of us are here, so we can be trained and retrained on how to help tackle corruption at the grassroots level. We are therefore ready to ensure that we practice what we would be taught here”.
The participants comprised ALGON leadership and other local government council chairmen, leaders of legislative councils, heads of service, directors of finance, and other officials from across the 31 LGCs of Akwa Ibom State.
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