NNPC, 12 others fail ICPC integrity assessment

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and 12 other federal ministries, departments, and agencies have scored zero in the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard released by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.

According to the ICPC publication on Wednesday, 357 MDAs were assessed — with NNPC ranking last after recording zero across all four assessment pillars.

In contrast, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission emerged as the best-performing agency with a score of 91.83, while the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission placed 278th with 38.25.

The ICPC explained that the scorecard is designed to promote transparency, ethical conduct, and institutional accountability.

It measures performance across four areas: management culture and structure, financial management, administrative systems, and the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit.

For the 2025 cycle, the assessment covered 360 target MDAs, but three were exempted, leaving 357 agencies evaluated.

Presenting the report, ICPC Chairman, Dr. Aliyu Musa — represented by Director of Systems Study and Review, Olusegun Adigun — said the findings revealed widespread weaknesses in ethics and governance.

Of the MDAs assessed, only 48 (13.95%) recorded substantial compliance, 132 (38.37%) achieved partial compliance, 141 (40.99%) showed poor compliance, while 23 (6.69%) were classified as non-compliant.

“No MDA achieved full compliance,” Adigun said, noting that 13 MDAs failed to respond entirely and were classified as high-risk. NNPC topped this group.

Other non-responsive MDAs included the Institute of Archaeology and Museum Studies, the Federal Civil Service Commission, the University of Calabar, the Cross River Basin Development Authority, and several colleges and research institutes across the country.

Top-performing MDAs included NUPRC, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, and the Bank of Industry.

The ICPC warned that agencies with consistently low scores will face closer scrutiny and possible enforcement actions, saying the goal is to strengthen integrity, accountability, and productivity across government operations.

Efforts to reach NNPC spokesperson Andy Odeh were unsuccessful, as calls and messages were not answered at the time of filing this report.