Worried by the rate at which corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics of Nigerian system, social Development Integrated Center (Social Action), in collaboration with African Center For Media and Literacy (AFRICMIL) and other CSOs have called for the inclusion of anti- corruption study in all levels of education as a very potent way of reducing corruption in the country.
This being part of the communiqué presented at a one day conference that held in port Harcourt.
“The school curricula must be considered for infusing anti-corruption study into formal education process right from primary school level,” the communiqué read in part.
They also opined that the overbearing influence of the oil and gas sector must be made to contribute to prudent contracting processes in order to improve anti-corruption practice, and to also enhance contract related benefits and services to affected communities.
Still on how best to ensure that corruption is drastically reduced in Nigeria, the CSOs maintained that there should be an oversight committee comprising of state and CSOs representatives to take over the task of ensuring budget compliance to ensure social accountability on project selection, budgeting and implementation for better services to the public.
According to the communiqué, audit service commission can be established to bring about audit staff recruitment prudence and sectoral service discipline into public auditing processes –especially as this improve independence in funds sourcing and procurement approaches in line with accountability/transparency objectives while parliamentary independence and oversight role must be fully utilized to improve the prospects of realizing better dividends from transparency and accountability practices around public procurement processes in the region
In addressing this menace, they further noted that there is need for the state at all level to implement the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), while all sectors and stakeholders should be involved at the beginning of the planning process to give all a sense of ownership to trigger implementation success for publicly funded projects.
By Ngozi Anosike
