ICPC recovers ₦5.3bn from council accounts, strikes to place LG’s books on-line

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has recovered over ₦5.3 billion from a overview of native authorities accounts in seven states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and is now shifting to make councils throughout the nation publish their funds on-line.
The Chairman of ICPC, Dr. Musa Aliyu (SAN), disclosed this on Thursday in Lafia on the flag-off of the ICPC–NITDA Local Government Websites Pilot.
This is because the pilot begins in Nasarawa state, forward of a deliberate rollout to all 774 native authorities areas.
A press assertion by ICPC Head, Media and Public Communications, John Odey, in Abuja, stated the Commission's boss famous that the Supreme Court’s July 2024 judgment, which affirmed the monetary autonomy of native authorities councils and the direct fee of their statutory allocations, had raised the stakes on the grassroots.“Autonomy brings responsibility. Funds that now flow directly to the councils must be spent openly and for the benefit of the people,” he stated.
The recoveries, he stated, confirmed each the dimensions of the danger on the grassroots and what scrutiny can obtain, and the web sites are the preventive aspect of the identical effort.
Built on a standardised template developed beneath the Commission’s Accountability and Corruption Prevention Programme for Local Governments (ACPP-LG), they may require councils to reveal data in 5 areas: financials, protecting budgets, allocations, income, expenditure, audits and money owed; open procurement; human assets; citizen engagement, together with whistleblowing channels; and management of corruption.
“When these records are published regularly, citizens can follow the money, the media can ask informed questions and oversight institutions can detect risks early, before they become losses,” he stated.
He stated the Governor of Nasarawa state, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, carried out the flag-off on the Government House, Lafia, on the occasion themed: 'Deepening Transparency and Accountability on the Grassroots via Digital Disclosure'.
The Secretary to the Nasarawa State Government, Dr. Shuaibu Magaji Labaran (SAN), delivered the welcome deal with, Odey additional disclosed.
According to Dr. Aliyu, the selection of Nasarawa as the primary state mirrored the governor’s dedication to good governance.
The anti-graft company chief famous that the Commission’s coaching establishment, the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, is situated in Keffi within the state and has lengthy loved the assist of the state authorities.
He acknowledged the pledge made by the NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Abdullahi, throughout an earlier courtesy go to to ICPC, that the company would register the domains, develop the web sites and host them for at the least one yr for all 774 native authorities areas.
ICPC, he stated, brings the content material requirements and accountability framework, whereas NITDA brings the expertise and platform.
“A website is only as good as the information on it; one that is launched and then abandoned will only disappoint the people,” the Chairman stated, interesting to council chairmen to appoint dedicated officers, take possession of the platforms and maintain them up to date promptly and precisely.
Dr. Aliyu assured the councils that ICPC visits the web sites as a companion in prevention and never as an instrument of witch-hunting, including that classes from the pilot will refine the template and the rollout plan for the remaining states.
“Transparency is not an event. It is a habit that will lead to accountability,” he stated.
In his goodwill message, the director-general of NITDA painted the image of a lady in a distant Nasarawa group who should journey greater than 60 kilometres, at her personal expense, to study whether or not her council has accredited a group mission or to lodge a criticism.
“We are in a digital age. Our people are online; therefore, government needs to be online to serve them better,” he stated.
The DG listed three targets of the initiative: higher governance, higher citizen engagement and higher financial alternatives.
He stated NITDA would set requirements, construct templates and prepare residents, and urged councils to make use of native expertise to construct and maintain the web sites.
He disclosed that the pilot could be scaled to each council within the nation. “Our ambition is not 774 websites. It is 774 digitally empowered local governments delivering better experience to millions of Nigerians,” he stated.
Flagging off the pilot, Governor Sule launched the Nasarawa State Information Technology and Digital Economy Agency (NASITDEA) because the state’s technical champion for the initiative.
He directed every council to take duty for the accuracy and common updating of its revealed data, and to assign accountable officers to confirm data earlier than publication.
The governor noticed {that a} web site is barely credible when it's present and helpful, and referred to as on civil society, the media and group establishments to make use of the platforms.
Success, he stated, could be measured by whether or not individuals can discover the knowledge, whether or not it's present and whether or not it's used, not by the launch.
Engr. Sule added that with allocations disclosed as they're obtained, the period of councils failing to pay salaries on the declare that funds had not arrived was over. He additionally advised ICPC and NITDA that the initiative wouldn't be full till state governments make the identical disclosures, and provided Nasarawa as the primary to hitch, in order that residents can inform the place funds meant for councils are held up.
In his remarks, the Emir of Lafia, HRH Justice Sidi Bage Muhammad I (retd.), expressed delight at being a part of the event and counseled the Chairman of ICPC, the DG NITDA and Governor Sule for the initiative.
On his half, the Speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Dr. Danladi Jatau, pledged the Assembly’s backing.
He recalled that the Constitution empowers the House to supervise native authorities funds and counseled the Governor for his openness on federal allocations.
The flag-off was adopted by a technical session on the standardised web site template.