ICPC recovers N117bn in eight months

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commcission (ICPC) has recovered over N117bn between January and August 2022 through various sources.

Chairman of the commission, Bolaji Owasanoye, disclosed this on Thursday when he appeared before the House of Representatives’ Committees on Anti-corruption and Appropriation for defence of the 2023 budget proposal.

He gave a breakdown of the recoveries to include N1.413bn and $225,965 in ICPC/TSA recovery account and N1.264bn cash through tax intervention.

Other recoveries, according to him, are plots of land, completed buildings, vehicles, electronics and jewelries valued at N679.13m, N2.603bn, N81.1m, N1.55m and N195,500 respectively.

The ICPC boss added that the Commission restrained N49.9bn through system study and review intervention; N6.435bn cash through budget tracking; N53.91bn through ICPC advisory and N614.2m in other accounts.

Apart from the recoveries, the chairman also highlighted other accomplishments of the Commission during the 2022 budget cycle to as completion of 672 investigations as well as 565 non-petition-led investigations; securing of 15 convictions; 538 projects tracked under Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Initiative (CEPTI); deployment of Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard on 260 MDAs; Review of Open Treasury Portal in 30 MDAs; System Study and Review of 10 MDAs; inauguration of 26 Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs); 14 Corruption Monitoring activities undertaken; and public enlightenment and education of Nigerians on and against corruption through various platforms.

Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption, Nicholas Garba Shehu, called on the Federal Government to release the remnant of the Commission’s 2022 budget to enable it to accomplish its target.

The committee chairman also urged ICPC to develop a whistleblowing mobile app so that Nigerians could take advantage of it to report acts of corruption wherever they are.