CHAPTER ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- INTRODUCTION
Nigeria despite its oil wealth has one of the largest population of poor people on the African continent.1 Corruption is however the major cause of poverty in Nigeria. Despite more than a decade of civilian democratic rule, Nigeria still faces huge governance and development challenges. Transparency International ranked Nigeria 136 with a score of 26 on its 2015 corruption perception index.2 Despite efforts made by the government for the past decade to provide a better legal and institutional framework to curb corrupt practices in the public service, there are still major issues with corruption.
Giving the way the practice of corruption has become generally accepted in Nigeria, the research may think it is because there are no laws and institutions to curb corruption. This is not the case. In fact there are several laws that proscribe corruption and institutions to curb corruption in the public sector.
The Penal and Criminal Codes both contain anti-corruption provisions. Accordingly, the law prohibit demanding and receiving of bribes by public officials. The law also penalise anyone who either gives or offers bribe to public officers. The law also prohibit the activities of agents, relatives and other close associates of public officers to demand or receive gratification either for them or any other person.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 provides for the establishment of the Code of Conduct Bureau.3 The Bureau was designed to monitor compliance with anti-corruption regulations in the code of conduct for public officers. In addition to the Nigerian Constitution, there are other laws, regulations, and initiatives that have been enacted or implemented to fight corruption. The Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act led to the establishing of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). The Act prohibits corruption, corrupt practices and corrupt enrichments and aims at the enthronement of probity, accountability, transparency, honesty, integrity and credibility in public life. The Act also establishes an Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission charged with the responsibility of investigating and prosecuting offender under the Act.
Also, Due Process was established to commence contract award review, oversight and certification process.4 It is a mechanism that certifies for public funding only those projects that have passed the test of proper-implementation packaging. Those projects most comply with the stringent requirements of international competitive bid approach in award process.