Public officers and assets declaration

Minister of the Federal Capital (FCT) Malam Muhammad Musa Bello recently directed all staff of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) including its agencies and departments to declare their assets. He said all civil servants must comply with the requirements of the law under the provisions of paragraph 11 of the 5th Schedule of the […]

Minister of the Federal Capital (FCT) Malam Muhammad Musa Bello recently directed all staff of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) including its agencies and departments to declare their assets. He said all civil servants must comply with the requirements of the law under the provisions of paragraph 11 of the 5th Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The minister’s directive was contained in a circular signed by FCTA’s Director of Establishments and Training Alhaji S. H. Mohammed. It said all public officers are required by the Constitution to declare their assets and liabilities on assumption of office; thereafter at the end of every four years for public officers on continuous employment of government; and at the end of term of office or tenure of employment. The minister’s directive further directed all FCTA staffers to, after declaring their assets, submit an acknowledgment slip to the permanent secretary’s office on or before March 31, 2016.
Before the FCT Minister, heads of several Federal agencies including military had similarly directed their staff to declare their assets. They include Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Brigadier General Johnson Olawumi who gave the directive while speaking recently at a NYSC’s 2016 Annual Management Conference in Asaba, Delta State. Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service Colonel Hameed Ali as well as Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai had also directed their officers and men who have not declared their assets as required by the Constitution to do so immediately. The Customs’ boss gave his staff 14 days within which to comply with the directive.
The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and Tribunal Act of 1990 mandates CCB to establish and maintain a high standard of public morality in the conduct of government business. Functions of the Bureau as spelt out in the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution shall be to, among others, receive assets declarations made by public officers; examine the declarations and ensure that they comply with provisions of the law; retain custody of such declarations and make them available for inspection by any citizen of Nigeria on such terms and conditions as the National Assembly may prescribe. CCB also receives complaints about non-compliance with or breach of the provisions of the Code of Conduct or any law in relation thereto, investigates the compliant and, where appropriate, refers such matters to the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
The current practice in which CCB denies Nigerian citizens including journalists whose job, through the Freedom of Information Act, warrants them to access such declarations contravenes the constitutional provision that permit inspection of the documents. The continuous refusal by the CCB to make assets declaration records available even on request creates a window for public officers who made false declarations to get away with the criminal act as members of the Nigerian public who could have raised objections to any false claims are denied access to the declaration documents.
It would be recalled that in 2007, President Umaru Musa Yar’adua made photocopies of his duly completed assets declaration forms public, the first by any Nigerian president since 1960. Although public officers are not under any obligation by law to publish their declarations, CCB would be performing its statutory function by making assets declaration records available on demand as provided for in paragraph 3(c) under the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution.
Given the poor culture of record keeping and retrieval in government departments and agencies in Nigeria, an attempt to retrieve records kept for four years or even a whole tenure of 35 years of service is better imagined. In the present age of information technology, the storage and retrieval of assets declaration records could be done with much ease if the CCB takes time to computerize them. Afterwards the records would not only be safe for all times but it will be easy to retrieve and cross check at will.