Crimes

FG admits: Whistleblower policy has lost momentum

President Muhammadu Buhari during the 4th National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector; Theme Corruption and The Education Sector held at the Conference Center, State House, Abuja. October 4, 2022.

The Federal Government has admitted that its whistleblower policy has lost momentum.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmad, on Wednesday stated that Nigerians are now more concerned about their safety.

The Whistleblower Policy encourages Nigerians to disclose information on fraud, looted government funds, and financial misconduct.

The policy, launched in 2016, stipulates that whistleblowers earn between 2.5% and 5% from the recovered looted funds.

But speaking after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, Ahmed said a draft bill would be introduced to save the policy.

The minister said: “The ministry of finance, budget and national planning presented a number of memos today. The first is the draft whistleblower bill for 2022. This memo has been reviewed by council and approved with a provision to ensure alignment with the Evidence Act.

“The purpose of operationalising and putting in place a whistleblower bill is to strengthen the fight against corruption and to also enable protection for whistleblowers that provide information for use by government.

“As you know since 2016, the council had approved the setting up of the presidential initiative of continuous audit (PICA). PICA has been working in partnership with EFCC, ICPC, DSS, NFIU as well as the office of the attorney-general of the federation.

“We noticed that the whistleblower policy response has lost momentum. We embarked on engagements in the six geo-political zones and one of the main outcomes that we found is that people are concerned about their safety as a result of providing information. So this bill is critical to ensure the effectiveness of the retention of the whistle policy.”

The Star