Measures are in place to end corruption in govt contracts – FG
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The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, says the Federal Government has put measures in place to prevent corruption in the negotiation and execution of contracts.
Fagbemi said this in Abuja at a sensitisation workshop on the ‘Revised Guidelines on Negotiation and Drafting Agreements by Government Parties to Prevent Corruption, Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and Ensure Sustainable Development’, organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC.
“The government has taken measures aimed at ensuring that all contracts within Federal Executive Council’s threshold are properly vetted.
“As we have discovered that a major source of drain on our national purse is the increasing utilization of litigation and arbitration.
“This is sometimes funded by litigation sharks, to foist contracts and agreements that were ab initio procured through bribery and corruption on Nigeria.
”One thing is however clear, there can be no sustainable development without stemming corruption and IFFs,” he said.
Fagbemi added that the Federal Government is working towards more effective and transparent management of public resources in a bid to combat IFFs.
Stressing the need to adopt the right approach in fighting corruption and IFFs, he said, “Experience has, however, shown that law and order approach alone is not sustainable. Effectiveness and efficiency require a nuanced combination or well-tailored mixture of governance reforms, prevention and sanctions.
“It is estimated that Nigeria loses an average of 1-18 billion dollars annually to illicit financial flows, more than 60 per cent of which is due to commercial IFFs which would be largely prevented with capable negotiation, drafting transparency and patriotic zeal.
“Consequently, the methodology adopted with this workshop is a preventive effort aimed at enlightening key stakeholders charged with the responsibility of negotiating contracts on behalf of Government in the contents of the Revised Guidelines.
“This would hopefully deter corruption in negotiation and execution of government contracts, which is part of the Federal Government’s Ministerial Deliverables on Improved Governance for Effective Service Delivery.”
The minister noted that the Ministry of Justice was committed to supporting initiatives undertaken by ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government, MDAs, to engender transparency and efficiency, and also prevent corruption.
“Equally at the ministerial level, the ministry has developed policy documents and specific mechanisms to ensure transparency and reduce incidence of bad judgment awards.
“This always arise from poor drafting or drafting of Federal Government Contracts with malaise intention against the country and its citizenry, particularly as it relates to contracts within the threshold of the Federal Executive Council,” he said.
(Daily Post)
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