•Bureau not for hunting political opponents, says Isah
Contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Prof. Muhammed Isah, has said that the bureau has never and will never be used to hunt political opponents for whatever reason.
He blamed the non-performance of the bureau in the past on poor enforcement and lack of adequate enlightenment which made it a sleeping dog for a very long time..
Isah made the comments yesterday in his keynote address at a programme tagged ‘’Enlightenment Talk on Code of Conduct for Public Officers and Strict Compliance with Assets Declaration” organised by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Department of Reform Coordination and Service Improvement in Abuja..
“The Code of Conduct had been a sleeping giant before we came in two years ago. I think that the major reason for this is that the workings of the bureau were not adequately enforced. There was also poor enlightenment of the code to public officers and the general public,’’ he said.
According to him, the current number of defaulting officers is in thousands but such persons cannot be effectively prosecuted except the law setting up the bureau is amended by the National Assembly..
On the compulsory duties public servants owed the bureau, Isah, who is also a former lecturer at Bayero University, Kano said: ‘’We have about 14 codes of conduct for public officers. Among them are that the public officer is expected to and must shy away from conflict of interest, he must also avoid a situation where he will be tempted to abuse his office, he must not demand or collect bribes and he is not allowed to operate any foreign account.”
He appealed to participants to take the message and reach out to other public officers for the good and progress of the nation.
Earlier, in a welcome address, the FCT Permanent Secretary, Olusade Adesola, said that the oaths administered by the code of conduct bureau were meant to be helpful to public officers, not to discourage them from making a better living.
Adesola, who was represented by Prof. Sam Oludare, stated: ‘’The bureau was established to monitor public officers to conform to accountability and probity as it is practiced all over the world to usher in economic progress, good governance for better delivery of government services to the people’’.
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