There are strong indications that fraudulent public officials aiding or abetting the circumvention of public service financial rules or engage in fraudulent diversion of funds may be in for hard times in the country. This is because the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has unveiled plans to investigate any criminal breach of the annual reports of the Auditor-General of the Federation, AGF, as part of its ongoing war on corruption in the country.
Disclosing this at the stakeholders' meeting on the Review of Personnel Cost of MDAs yesterday in Abuja, Chairman of the commission, Mr. Ekpo Nta, also said that the System Study and Review in the public sector by the commission was not in line with its mandate as enunciated in Section 6 (b-d) of the ICPC Act 2000 and not in any way conflicting with the functions of the Auditor- General. Nta said the commission's functions or statutory mandate or responsibility was not in conflict with that of the AGF because some MDAs had in the past sought to impede the functions of the antigraft agency because of their ignorance of its mandate as provided for in Section 6 (b-d) of the ICPC Act 2000.
He disclosed that the commission had started studying the recommendations of the annual reports of the Auditor- General of the Federation for the investigation of criminal breaches for necessary action, adding that the review is to eliminate corruption prone processes and procedures associated with the management of the personnel cost element of public institutions and direct changes where necessary.
National Mirror