ICPC recovers N166.5bn assets, secures 56 convictions

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has recovered and restrained cash and assets valued at N166.51 billion from corrupt persons in the last two and a half years.

The recovery is contained in the Commission’s Mid-Term Performance Report (2019 -June 2021) presented at the ICPC Board and Management retreat held in Abuja recently.

According to the Mid-Term Performance Report, assets worth N81.23 billion were seized and recovered in 2019; N82.57 billion in 2020 and N2.71 billion between January and June 2021.

The recovered assets include houses, vehicles, electronics, jewelries, clothings and accessories, plots of land and farms.

In the Mid-Term Performance Report (2019 – June 2021), the Commission recorded an overall average performance of 134% which represents the weighted average of all targets.

The report further indicated that the anti-corruption agency had an impressive performance in some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as corruption monitoring activities; the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard assessment of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs); anti-corruption activities undertaken by ICPC-supported CSO platforms; filing of cases in court; staff training and non-petition intelligence-led investigation.

Under its Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Initiative, the ICPC tracked over 2,000 projects worth over N300 billion during the period under review.

Spokesperson for ICPC, Mrs. Azuka Ogugua, said that in the same period, the commission forced 326 contractors of abandoned projects across the six geo-political zones of the country to return to site to complete projects amounting to N32.183 billion.

“The Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Initiative has aided improved service delivery and higher completion rates for funded projects in compliance with regulatory requirements as well as ensured value for money in the national budget under the present Administration.

“The Commission’s Systems Study and Review of personnel and capital votes of MDAs resulted in savings of N261 billion to the government between 2019 and June 2021.

“The government saved N89 billion in 2019, N147 billion in 2020 and N25 billion in 2021,” the Commission said.

The Mid-Term Report showed that the Commission received 3,940 petitions between January 2019 and June 2021.

Out of this figure, 1,045 investigations were concluded while it also concluded 119 non-petition intelligence-led investigations during the period.

While the Commission filed 200 cases in court, it however secured 56 convictions during the period under review.

The Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN), commended the board, management and staff for ensuring that the chain of the Commission remained strong.

TheStar