NITDA Inaugurates ACTU Members to Curb Corruption in Public Service

…NITDA scores 69.1%, 5the position in ethics, compliance score card

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has inaugurated the newly appointed members of the NITDA’s Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) on Tuesday at the corporate headquarters of the Agency.

The Anti- Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU), was established by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as one of the implementation mechanisms for its Mandate on prohibition and prevention of corruption especially in the Public Service.

The Director General of NITDA Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi CCIE, who was represented by Mr Adejube Olayinka, Director Standards Guidelines and Frameworks, said that with the help of ACTU and NITDA’s Mandate the Agency is corruption free so far and will continue to maintain the statoscope.

Mallam Abdullahi stated that IT Regulation is one of the Agency’s key focus areas and it has help the federal government saved over 17 BN through IT clearance which would have ended up being embezzled.

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He declared that NITDA’s ACTU was among the 20 MDAs selected for the pilot deployment of ethics and compliance score card. The ethics and compliance score card evaluates MDAs based on key indicators on ethics and compliance. NITDA scored 69.1% placing the Agency in 5th position in the overall assessment.

The NITDA boss assured the members of the committee for continuous support of the unit in order to ensure that it maintains its standard.

He commended the commission’s initiative of creating such a strategy that will help in the reduction of corruption in the country.

Speaking earlier, the Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye represented by the Director of Anti-Corruption Unit of the Commission, Bar. Ifeanyi Obialor reiterated that ACTU is an initiative of the Commission and was endorsed by the federal government to serve as an in-house check mechanism for corruption in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Prof. Owasanoye asserted that with the ACTU strategy, the commission has succeeded in the reduction of corruption in the public service as we all known business is not as usual.

He stressed that ACTU is not set up as a parallel authority with the Agency’s management but as a unit to work with the management in discharging their duties and functions.

Prof. Owasanoye solicited for management support to help the ACTU members perform their duties effectively and applauded the members for their pro activeness in discharging their duties.

The former chairman of NITDA’s ACTU, Mr. Sarafa Lawal asserted that ACTU in NITDA has come a long way as before it was just three members but now it is a seven-man committee because of the cooperation and support of the management of NITDA. It is also one of the performing ACTU’s units in MDAs.

Mr. Lawal advised the newly appointed members to be guided by the standing order governing the operations of ACTU and maintain cordial relationship with the management.