The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission says it has recovered cash and assets valued at N166.51 billion from corrupt persons in the last two and half years.
This represents an increase of 378 per cent over the assets recovery target of N44bn under the Commission’s Strategic Plan 2019 – 2023.
The recovered assets include houses, vehicles, electronics, jewelries, clothings and accessories, plots of land and farms.
This achievement was contained in the Commission’s Mid-Term Performance Report (2019 -June 2021) presented at the ICPC Board and Management retreat held in Abuja.
According to the Mid-Term Performance Report made available to journalists on Monday, assets worth N81.23 billion were seized and recovered in 2019; N82.57 billion in 2020 and N2.71 billion between January and June 2021.
The Chairman of ICPC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, commended the board, management and staff for ensuring that the chain of the Commission remained strong.
He said, “Lead with fresh impetus from the front and not from behind. Be proactive in leadership, pull your weight and the effects will surely be seen. Be prudent with public funds and be firm with staff who are not adding value”.
While acknowledging efforts of the Commission in the fight against corruption, Owasanoye enjoined the management and staff not to rest on the achievements.
”We need to walk the talk. You know the problem and you have the solution so just implement it and produce results,” he stated.
In the Mid-Term Performance Report (2019 – June 2021), the Commission recorded an overall average performance of 134 per cent which represents the weighted average of all targets.
The report further indicated that the anti-corruption agency had an impressive performance in some Key Performance Indicators such as corruption monitoring activities; the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard assessment of Ministries, Departments and Agencies; anti-corruption activities undertaken by ICPC-supported CSO platforms; filing of cases in court; staff training and non-petition intelligence-led investigation.
Under its Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Initiative, the ICPC tracked over 2,000 projects worth over N300bn during the period under review.
In the same period, 326 contractors of abandoned projects across the six geo-political zones of the country were forced by the Commission to return to site to complete projects amounting to N32.183bn.
Copyright PUNCH.
