10th September, 2014
The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) on Wednesday decried the poor compliance of public servants with the law on the declaration of assets as provided for in the constitution.
Speaking at a meeting with Federal Permanent Secretaries in Abuja, Dr Ademola Adebo, a Federal Commissioner in the bureau, said that the forum was aimed at strengthening awareness on assets declaration to ensure that all public officers complied with the provision of the constitution.
Adebo solicited the support of permanent secretaries at the federal and state levels to ensure compliance.
He identified ignorance, inadequate information and deliberate refusal to declare assets among public officers as challenges militating against the work of the bureau.
According to him, the consequence for non-compliance is prosecution, adding, “to us, it is cheaper to engage public officials to comply than prosecution.
“The CCB is not looking at compliance from the point of view of charge and bail or how much we are able to collect from defaulters.
“The Bureau believes in corruption prevention because prevention saves time, money and energy.”
The commissioner acknowledged that the assets declaration form was a bit technical, but said that the bureau had no other means of simplifying it.
“Because of the technicality of the form, we think it is better we come together and fashion a way of making public officials to understand the process of completing the form.
“The law says we must comply and it does not care whether you know how to complete the form or not and to us in CCB, we must enforce the law,” Adebo said.