By Doyin Ojosipe
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Tuesday, agreed to partner with the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) on its whistleblowing initiative tagged Corruption Anonymous (CORA).
Olayinka Aiyebayo, Head, Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Division (CMED) at the Commission made this known during a courtesy call by a delegation of the AFRICMIL at the ICPC office in Abuja.
According to him, the activities of the organisation was well known to the commission as they are in line with the ICPC mandate.
Fielding questions from AFRICMIL delegation, Aiyebayo who represented the Commission’s Chairman, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, noted that ICPC had stepped up its operations at the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in a bid to ensure that the whistleblowing policy was operational.
He said the Commission had organised trainings for members of the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) in the MDAs including inducting desk officers to observe and report happenings to the ICPC.
He also noted that the Commission has began a Systems Study Review of the activities of the ACTUs which will help identify MDAs not performing well as far as whistle blowing was concerned.
Responding, Chido Onumah, AFRICMIL Coordinator said the visit was necessitated by the need to interface with the Commission as a very important stakeholder in the transparency and accountability quest.
He revealed that AFRICMIL intends to release its survey on how Nigerians had related with the whistleblowing policy in the past four years, noting that the survey will be helpful with insights on decisions to take in the nearest future on the implementation of the whistle blowing policy.
He also that the organisation was partnering with the Shehu Musa Yaradua Foundation to build a portal where tips could be submitted anonymously.
Onumah said AFRIMIL was on a mission to collaborate with the Commission as tips submitted to AFRICMIL through the portal will be submitted to the ICPC.
Speaking on protection for whistleblowers, Godwin Onyeacholem, Senior Program Officer of AFRICMIL urged the Commission to look into the case of whistle-blowers suffering from reprisals and ensure that those convicted are not left unpunished.
