The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), has charged the federal government to provide sufficient funding support for the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) in order to ensure a successful implementation of the whistleblower policy.
Chido Onumah, the Centre’s Coordinator, gave the charge as one of the recommendations for improving the whistleblower policy in Nigeria while making a presentation at a one-day evaluation workshop organised by the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC).
The workshop with the theme, ‘The Whistleblower Policy and the role of the Inter Agency Asset Tracing Team,” was aimed at assessing the successes and challenges of the policy since inception in December 2016.
He said though it was obvious that whistleblowing is a great tool in the fight against corruption, PICA, which is saddled with the responsibility of implementing it, needed to be supported to develop the technical capacity of staff and to raise public awareness about the role and impact of whistle blowers.
He pointed out that contributions of citizens during town hall meetings, a media dialogue and a national stakeholders summit organised by AFRICMIL to increase awareness about the policy raised concerns about transparency and accountability regarding the management of the whistleblower policy.
“We realise that many people do not know about the policy and for those who know, they are not aware of the intricacies. We also found out that people do not readily have access to the appropriate disclosure channels,” Onumah added.
Also, of serious concern, he said, were the questions of protection for whistleblowers against reprisals, the reward process and the likelihood of delay on the part of the relevant agencies to act when given tips. Onumah said these are issues that must be addressed for the policy to be effective.
Prof Itse Sagay, Chairman, PACAC, said Nigerians should be aware that not every whistleblower will get five percent of money recovered as the federal government could use its discretion in calculating the reward for individual recipients based on the amount recovered.
Dr. Mohammed Dikwa, Secretary of PICA, who represented the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said the federal government was intensifying efforts to improve the effectiveness of the whistleblower policy, citing the recent tour of UK by top officials of PICA to learn how whistleblowing operates in that society.
Speakers at the event included the Executive Secretary of PACAC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, President, Trade Union Congress, and Mr. Gbola Sokoya, Head, Inter-Agency Asset Tracing Team.
