EU’s anti-corruption initiative

The launch of the European Union’s Support to Reforming Institutions Programme in Abuja, on December 2, is another practical demonstration that the international community will be taking more than a passing interest in Nigeria’s efforts to surmount systemic weaknesses in its modernisation process.

Under the SRIP initiative, for which the EU has already released 297 million euros (about N67.1 billion), the anti-corruption war in Nigeria becomes a joint project in which the relevant local agencies draw on the expertise and logistics support provided by the European organisation. The EU is also deepening its commitment to processes aimed at “a more efficient and transparent budget management,” while facilitating economic development and security in the Niger Delta.

According to its Programme Director, Mr. Jean Yves Gourdol, “SRIP is geared towards improving public service delivery, the end result of which must be reflected in a business climate more conducive to private productivity investment and job creation and subsequently, to a marked reduction of poverty in the affected programme areas.”

SRIP, it has to be emphasised, has come as an international acknowledgment that Nigeria is desirous of reforms to reverse the woeful economic mismanagement, under-performance in governance and unremitting deterioration in the quality of life of the citizenry. It is at the same time a response to the fact that the decade-long public sector reforms and the anti-corruption drive have been ineffective and that external intervention is imperative if the nation’s regression is not to undermine the global economic system.

For a nation whose key public functionaries, past and serving, have been repeatedly implicated in money laundering and bribery scandals on an international scale, the concern and current initiative of the EU should not be a surprise. Back in 1998, former United States Vice-President Al Gore had called attention to how “foreign corrupt practices threaten to undermine both the growth and the stability of our global trade and financial system,” insisting that international strategies had to be formulated and applied to check the trend.

The Federal Government and its anti-graft agencies, namely, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences, have to be commended for embracing SRIP. It is a demonstration of the government’s preparedness for global standards of accountability and transparency.

Such standards are unambiguously enunciated in extant international conventions, especially the United Nations Declaration against Corruption and Bribery, the Lima Declaration against Corruption (to which Nigeria is a signatory), and the European Union Convention on Corruption, among others.

Given that corruption is most pervasive (and has the highest economic cost) in procurement and public works construction projects, governments at all levels should embrace the European initiative. The Model Law on Procurement of Goods and Construction, adopted in 1993 by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, should become a handbook for government agencies.

Now is the time for the Federal Government to ensure that the EFCC operates unfettered in the investigation and prosecution of corrupt practices, wherever they occur and whatever their social status and political connections may be. The meddling by the Attorney- General and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa, must be stopped, so as not to further expose Nigeria to ridicule and possible international isolation.

The National Assembly also has to take its constitutional responsibilities seriously. Appropriate legislation is required to drive the nation’s efforts to root out corruption and related abuses of due process. Where enforcement of extant statutes such as the Public Procurement Act is lax, it is the duty of the legislature to invoke the relevant sections of the Constitution against offending agencies and functionaries.

Nigerians are definitely not amused that the National Assembly uncovered mind-boggling financial scandals in Federal Government’s expenditure in the power sector and in the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as well as revenue collection agencies but refused to recommend the alleged offenders for prosecution.

As the World Bank has emphasised, “countries with notoriously high levels of corruption risk marginalization in a world of rapid economic integration.” That should be food for thought to Nigeria’s political leadership. SRIP offers an opportunity to reinvent the nation’s public service machinery, just as Nigerians expect that the EU would deploy its expertise and resources to regularly track and report flow of funds from Nigerian officials to private bank accounts in Europe, North America and beyond.

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