The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has requested that Nigerian Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) employees ensure timely and accurate reporting of their assets for the sake of transparency and accountability.
During a one-day enlightenment campaign, the FCT State Director of the Bureau, Suleiman Usman, stated that the Bureau wants to sensitize public officials on the importance of asset declaration, as well as the dos and don’ts inherent in the code of conduct.
He warned that while the CCB will continue to work with stakeholders to keep things in check, the Bureau will not fail to take necessary measures against any civil servant who is petitioned, investigated by the Bureau’s committee and found guilty of using official hours for private businesses.
“We are here to enlighten the civil servants of the FCT Administration on the importance of asset declaration and ensure that we have total compliance. We also enlightened them on the code of conduct of public officers so that they will know their dos and don’ts alongside their responsibilities.
“We don’t expect every person to understand us right away but we are optimistic that various Heads of Departments will help in clarifying our message to individuals that didn’t comprehend.
“The Bureau has a committee that investigates and take the necessary measure, which is why we specified that civil servants must not engage in direct managing of private business if they want to carry out private businesses,” he stated.
Also speaking at the event, the Acting Director of Reform Coordination and Service Improvement, FCTA, Dr Jummai Ahmadu, said that the enlightenment campaign is a routine activity of the Bureau across the country that is done periodically, into fresh the minds of civil servants in the declaration of their assets which is done every 4 years.
Ahmadu added that the FCT Administration is taking deliberate efforts to ensure that people know what is expected of them by giving them detailed information on how to declare their assets.
She explained that public servants who acquire properties a long time ago are expected to declare the current value of such properties and not the value they were acquired at, while properties acquired through inheritance are simply to be stated as such.
In her words, “This enlightenment campaign is a routine activity of the Code of Conduct Bureau that is done periodically across the country and the declaration of assets is done every 4 years which springs the possibility of public servants forgetting what they need to do.
“The government is taking deliberate efforts to ensure that people know what they need to do. The Permanent Secretary has also instructed that more batches of this sensitization will be done in the coming days for civil servants living in the FCT so that they can get the information comfortably, assimilate it well and then put it to use.”
She, therefore advised staff of the FCTA to take the sensitisation campaign seriously and put the information derived to good use, noting that there have been cases where people got convicted for underdeclaration or outright non-declaration of their assets.
