Anti-Corruption Academy Faults Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index

The International Anti-Corruption Academy, IACA, has declared that the measuring tool used by Transparency International (TI) in her Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) had a lot of gaps that needed to be bridged

It stated that “a lot of governments are doing so much but do not get credit for them.”

The Dean of the International Anti-Corruption Academy, IACA, in Vienna, Austria, Mr Thomas Stelzer, made the observation when he visited Nigeria’s Anti-graft Agency the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related offences commission ICPC headquarters as part of his working visit to Nigeria.

Stelzer, who is IACA’s Executive Secretary of the Assembly of Parties, stated that Transparency International Corruption Perception Index TI’s CPI puts governments in difficult positions because no matter how hard governments of nations work, they are exposed and reduced to the perceptions of constituents.

Speaking on a way out, the IACA Dean said that, IACA was working on measuring corruption as part of its research work by putting together all the expertise, bringing on board everybody who has something to contribute to the project to see the right methodology to adopt for better results.

“We are imperative, we are transparent, and we want everyone to participate from the beginning so that we can hold everybody accountable in implementing later what we might have agreed on and we would also like your Academy to contribute.

“IACA is the only intergovernmental, international organisation that concentrates on the holistic fight against corruption and enjoys the status of an institution of higher learning, authorized to offer academic degrees, offering technical assistance and capacity building to practitioners to facilitate implementation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).”

He revealed that IACA engages in capacity building through education and non-academic training by offering technical assistance to people from different sectors including investigative journalists and members of the private sector.

“One of the reasons I came to visit Nigeria is to see how we can scale up this traditional strong cooperation as well as take things forward with a focus on how we can add value to the national efforts in the fight against corruption,”  the IACA Dean said.

The ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye gave a rundown of the tripartite mandate of the commission in the area of enforcement, prevention and enlightenment, stating that although not easily measurable, ICPC made a lot of progress under its preventive mandate, which is not measured nor captured by the CPI, even though the efforts contribute massively to the fight against corruption.

He mentioned some other specific projects ICPC engaged in including being the secretariat for the inter-agency committee on stopping Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in Nigeria, and in that capacity, organizing capacity building on slippery areas such as tax evasion, transfer pricing, trade mis-invoicing for organisations connected to IFFs; issuance of advisories to government among other activities of the ICPC.

Professor Owasanoye also revealed that ICPC through its training arm, ACAN, has begun conducting surveys of experiences with corruption, to know how to adjust and deal with issues instead of relying solely on the annual report by TI.

“We would love to be able to partner with IACA to become a regional hub for some of our activities and those of IACA, to exchange staff once we agree on the parameters and to test the waters by having some activities at the regional level jointly with funding from partners to build capacity within anti-corruption agencies and in the broader context among stakeholders and public sector players towards diminishing corruption,” Professor Owasanoye stated.

The highlight of the visit was a tour of the facilities at the headquarters of the Anti-graft Agency.