Strengthening the Dedicated Anti-Corruption Agencies Fighting Corruption in Nigeria: The Role of Favourable Policy Environment

Corruption

Corruption is a complex phenomenon that means different things to different people. Corruption, although being tied frequently to the act of bribery, is a collective word relating to the abuse of power for personal gain, which need not be monetary. Indeed, scholars have contended that concentrating on bribery when trying to understand corruption neglects its scope and intricacy. And this, is perhaps, why Transparency International [TI], sees corruption “as the ‘abuse of entrusted power for private gain” and go on to note that it “can take many forms, and can include behaviours like: public servants demanding or taking money or favours in exchange for services, politicians misusing public money or granting public jobs or contracts to their sponsors, friends and families, corporations bribing officials to get lucrative deals [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15].

Corruption is a symptom of bad governance and weakness in institutions that exist in virtually every country in the world; in other words, no country is resistant to corruption, as it has become a global problem. It also reflects a lack of training and education that seeks to change the culture against corruption. Some scholar’s express corruption as perversion or a change from good to bad. specifically, corruption or corrupt activities entails the infringement of accepted norms for private gain or benefit. Thus, corruption is like a chameleon that metamorphoses alongside the culture, values norms, and politics of the country in question, and it affects all countries, irrespective of the administrative systems and cultures in place. While corruption is a feature of all societies to varying degrees, it is a particular concern for developing countries because it undermines economic growth, discourages foreign investment and reduces resources available for infrastructure, public services and anti-poverty programmes [15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20].

Political Will and Leadership

Political will is a critical component to establishing sustainable and efficient anticorruption reforms. Without it, administrative efforts that aim improves public service strengthen institutional reforms, and change the relationship between the public sector and private enterprise will turn out to be unproductive. When corruption is systemic, effective leadership including at the political level can play a crucial part in transforming attitudes and behaviour. Thus, where institutions have been absolutely compromised by corruption, active and sustained political will is vital because powerful vested interests can only be successfully confronted when a country’s top leadership sends a clear message that it is no longer business as usual. A comparative study of anticorruption strategies in Hong Kong, China; India; Republic of Korea; Mongolia; Philippines; and Singapore. Concluded, “Political will is the most important prerequisite as a comprehensive anticorruption strategy will fail if it is not supported by the political leadership in a country.” The notion of political will refers to the proven intent of political leaders to combat corruption at a systemic level. The attention is on the actors, their motives and the choices they make to support and execute anticorruption reforms, International studies have illustrated that the political will deficit in developing nations is generally linked to the lack of leadership and/or leadership capability leading to absence of good governance. Though Singapore and Botswana serve as example of developing nations where the political devotion to anticorruption measures and strong leadership have paid handsome democratic and developmental dividends, in most developing nations such political will has been absent. As many of these nations lack strong leadership, they frequently struggle to evolve constructive national responses to their corruption problem. Experiences from countries that have made significant progress in combating corruption and entrenching good governance, like Singapore, Hong Kong and even China, shows that the successes recorded were the result of having transformational leaders with strong political will, that understood the seriousness of the problem [21].

Anticorruption Agencies (ACAs)

The first best practice is to never let the police handle the task of controlling corruption. This would be like giving candy to a child, expecting that it would not be eaten. Instead, a separate agency dedicated solely to the task of fighting corruption should be established to deal effectively with corruption in all government departments, including the police. The literature on Anticorruption Agencies (ACAs), stipulates that they commonly serve one or more of three general functions––investigation and enforcement; corruption prevention; and awareness and education. Those operating all three are generally recognised with the Hong Kong Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC), ICPC, EFCC and CCB, and although not to the same extent, Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) [22].

One fundamental element to successfully establishing effective anticorruption agencies lies in the readiness of the advocates of good governance to share their experiences and to work together to advance greater knowledge of best practices. experience suggests that international organizations can make a vital contribution on this front, but only if they work in collaboration with central governments and civil society, which, in turn, need to support business, academia, and a wide range of voluntary organizations. This can be achieved only when the organizations themselves set about the problem with a different and pragmatic mind [23].

Good Governance and Development

Given that corruption is itself a symptom of poor governance, the higher the incidence of corruption, the less an anticorruption strategy should include tactics that narrowly target corrupt behaviours and the more it should focus on the broad underlying features of the governance environment. For example, support for anticorruption agencies and public awareness campaigns is likely to meet with limited success in environments in which corruption is rampant and the governance system deeply flawed. In fact, in environments where governance is weak, anticorruption agencies are prone to being misused as tools of political victimization. These types of interventions are more appropriate in a “low” corruption setting, where governance fundamentals are reasonably sound, and corruption is a relatively marginal phenomenon [24].

Therefore, what is needed is look at the whole governmental and institutional system and, in every country, this will be different. What are the major failings that are the cause, the root cause of corruption? Is it that there is absolute impunity or no rule of law? Is it that there is no voice for the citizens to hold the corrupt accountable? Is it the dearth of social infrastructure or the absence of social welfare? etc. Corruption acts as a restraint on development, denying millions of people around the world the prosperity, rights, services and employment which they desperately need and deserve [25].

Corruption is at the root of Nigeria’s underdevelopment, the emergence of boko haram and gross unemployment [26].

Strengthening the Dedicated Anti-Corruption Agencies Fighting Corruption in Nigeria

Many countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, Nigeria and others have created anticorruption bodies explicitly mandated with the duty of following reports on corruption. To be successful these agencies must have independence from the political authority, sufficient resources, and personnel of highest integrity. They must also have the power of sanctions, or, at the minimum, have access to others, including the court, who may enforce sanctions. All the participants recognized that the dedicated anticorruption agencies (ACAs), in Nigeria, are far from being independent and that, due to their lack of resources, personnel and a clear mandate, they were frequently unable to carry out their duties. Lack of funding, manpower development and the need to have the power of enforcement included in their mandates (some of ACAs), consistently featuring as their main challenges. As one interviewee summed up The government has a lot of roles to play, why? The government has control of the police, the ACAS, it has diplomatic relations, it controls Labour force. Therefore, the government should be very serious regarding fighting corruption for example, if we take what is happening now, with the EFCC that is recovering a lot of money, it does have a reputable office for itself, some of them are poorly remunerated [31]. The ICPC that is doing a lot to tame the civil servant, you know maybe they are living in a rented office, Government should pump a lot of money into ACAS, to make the agencies very strong, very powerful, very conducive, empowering them with every confidence to do their job (Member, PACAC) [32, 33, 34, 35].

Another noted the importance of strengthening the mandates of the ACAs through monitoring and evaluation tools, as key to developing their operational mandate: In delineating their mandates, we intend to use monitoring and evaluation tool. For instance, there are a lot of overlap in their functions. Each agency has areas that are core. And there some other mandate, that they have, which are not core to the specific agency, but core to another agency. So, using monitoring and evaluation tools, we are going to help identify their core areas, so that they pay more attention to that core area. While leaving the one that are not core, or not paying as much attention to it, or doing it in conjunction with the agency that has the core mandate [sic] (Director, NSIWC).

A planned and directed effort to improve the efficiency and outcome of an anticorruption agency must take account of; the nature and main features of the corruption problem prevalent in the country, what the resulting organizational development needs of the Anticorruption agency will be, how and over what period these development needs will be met and what the projected costs will be. Only in this way, can an anti-corruption agency attain organisational competence, develop expertise, capability and external credibility and develop its capacity to perform within its operational mandate. In one interview, the participant describes the amendment of the CCB Act, as the surest way to ensure the operational efficiency of the organisation in future:

Even though we have not exhausted the laws with respect to CCB, I think the CCB Acts needs an amendment. An amendment that will define several roles, there are many roles, that are undefined by the CCB Acts, that sometimes affects the performance of the CCB. And there are some powers, we have in the Act, and the Constitutions, these powers are sum up. I think an amendment should be done to breakdown these powers for example, the CCB has powers to investigate breach or noncompliance with any of its codes. Now if you look at investigation as person, that has law enforcement background, there are quite several things, that you do in investigation; you have record examination, you enquire from the agencies to give you documents. so, these powers must be broken down to say that the CCB has the power ‘to request’. There was a time we have these problems with some banks, we asked for bank statements, and they said where the powers is, we cited the section but they cannot see it, because what they are seeing is power to investigate…. so that amendments will now make it clear, and it will aid the bureau in carrying out it functions ‘you get my point’ [sic] (Senior Official CCB).

Political will refers to the sustained commitment of political leaders to implement anti-corruption policies and programmes. And exists when these three determinants are met: (i) broad anticorruption laws exist; (ii) the dedicated anticorruption agency is provided with adequate personnel and resources; and (iii) the anticorruption laws are equitably administered by the dedicated anticorruption agency. For example, the resources invested in the ICAC are crucial to its success. The impressive amount of ICAC resources leads to some doubt about the applicability of the commission’s experiences in countries with other backgrounds and ambitions. First, developing countries rightfully argue that strategy proposals are not very realistic when they demand the availability of the financial resources that the ICAC has at its disposal. A staff member from one of the dedicated anticorruption agencies mentioned the importance of funding, describing it as the fulcrum within which all other things rest. He said: first and foremost, funding. Funding will improve almost every other thing From the technology, the hiring of very quality manpower, improve our operations, so, the funding, is the fulcrum within which all other things rest. Look at ICPC, it is just about 800 staff, Nigeria is about 180 million people, if one look at all the people that are in anti-corruption, add all the agencies together, they are very negligible, and. then, one look also at the scale of the problem. From their experience in terms of looking at institutions, and the kinds of things that they have seen, the best way to have leverage in attacking the problem, is ensuring that those institutions are strong and able both internally to withstand vulnerabilities from within, and improve regulatory agencies. For a country of about 180 million people and 774 locals governments, Nigeria is big.

So, when you are looking at the agencies solving the problem, you also must look at the scale of the problem. (Director, ICPC).

Furthermore, the anticorruption laws should be revised recurrently to takeout ambiguities or deal with unforeseen difficulties by instituting adjustments or, if required, new codification. For instance, the Singaporean Prevention of Corruption Act, was amended in 1966, to encapsulate Singaporeans working for their government in embassies and other government agencies abroad. As Singaporean citizens—could now be prosecuted for corrupt acts executed outside Singapore and would be punished as though the offenses had occurred in Singapore. As one interviewee noted: First, the problem with the anti-corruption agencies, is delineation of mandates. The agencies are flopping around the same issue. The country is large, the issues are big. There is accommodation for everyone. They need to properly delineate, so that they know; this is their focus, then they apply their response to that area, that is his focus, and clean up that area. That way, they will cover a lot more ground. Do you think they should be streamlined. What I am advocating, is proper interpretation of there mandate. Most anti-corruption agencies, if you read their laws, and then one, see what they are doing; they are not laying the right kind of emphasis. And with the national strategy, what we hope to do, is to use the monitoring and evaluation component to align them [36].

Anticorruption strategies should include investigation, prevention, and education. Less developed countries, however, could benefit most from an emphasis on investigation and prosecution, whereas developed countries would profit more from prevention actions. One interviewee clearly remarks on the need to amend their laws, to include enforcement powers: Lack of adequate budgetary provision, and weakness of the Act itself; inability of the Commission to prosecute directly. Because, if an agency, knows that look the Commission will come after me, they will be afraid, one of the reasons, they do not even care. Sometimes, we write letter to them (they will say: what will they do), and NThe Commission also write to Anthony general, and if a minister, that is not doing well, and knows that; what this Commission (FRC) can only do, is to write a letter. And the Attorney General is your colleague, one can say: okay, whenever they write I will go and meet my colleague. So that area is a major problem for us, right now in the National Assembly there is amendment bill going on, to address some of the challenges we have, we need enforcement (Senior Official FRC) [37, 38].

The focal point should be recognising the key task of anticorruption agencies. Considering that prevention is always better than prosecution, a compact enforcement and monitoring unit with significant authority and political independence maybe much better placed than other government agencies to guarantee that functional preventive steps are discovered and taken [39].

The Role of Favourable Policy Environment

Does the policy context in the country favour or hinder the control of corruption? The examples of Hong Kong and Singapore show that, apart from political will, they have succeeded in curbing corruption because of their favourable policy contexts: they have small populations; stable governments; high standards of living; efficient civil service systems; and well-developed infrastructure. Moreover, Singapore does not have any natural deposits and is not plagued by the “natural resource curse” impacting those countries bestowed with rich natural deposits. In contrast to this, Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million, will experience more difficulty in countering corruption because of its unfavourable policy context and the influence of “natural resource curse” [40].

The poor living standard of majority of Nigerians is an obvious result of the lack of basic and social infrastructures like healthcare, education, power, water, transportation, food and shelter. In one interview, a participant elaborated on what happens to a civil servant who comes to work, in a society in which every individual assumes the function of a local council: “Let me tell what happens to civil servants, who comes to work, and he has not paid his house rent, he has not paid his children school fees and he cannot pay his bills, he cannot settle down. The integrity of such a person becomes a problem, he gets home and the wife says, there is no food in the house, he does not understand what they are talking about, one because his pay is not good. Everyone is a local government (council); you are providing your own electricity; you are providing your transportation, you are providing everything, there is nothing from government. There is no power company, you buy your own generator, you buy fuel every day, there is no road. Thus, wherever you can follow, you will follow to get opportunity; these are the challenges of an average civil servant. Every day he comes out his head hot, thinking of how to make ends meet. The moment there is any opportunity to make money, before you open your mouth, he has done it” [sic] (Senior Official, PCC). Increased access to essential infrastructure services could reduce inequality, foster inclusion and support poverty reduction efforts, which can in turn reduce corruption within the society, As this interviewee remarked, that the focus should be on how to address the ‘drains of corruption’, and not agitation for a salary increase: I do not think, I want to be one of the people, who are going to be canvassing for increase remuneration, because that in isolation is not going to solve the problem.

I have seen people, who come from may be, the normal ministries, with very small take home Pay, to parastatals where they are getting 3, 4 or 5 times of what they are getting, yet when the opportunity arises, they still behave in unethical manner. So, for me the issue should be addressing the drains of corruption: that is those areas that makes our take- home pay, not able to takes us home: like the infrastructure services. If people have the confidence that public schools can educate their children, that hospitals can give, them good treatment, that the basics services are affordable, then the money you get will be able to solve some of the problems. Because what happens now is that there is an air of desperation; if one falls sick tomorrow, what will happen to me? I am going to pay so much for my child education, I need to buy generator, dig borehole, do A, B, C and D. So, no matter how much, you pay the person, once this desperation issues, are still there, then the problems remain (Director, NEITI).

Thus, “fighting corruption” may not be the best way to “fight corruption” criticising strategies that layer “yet another anti-corruption campaign, the creation of more anti-corruption commissions and ethics agencies, and the incessant drafting of new laws, decrees, and codes of conduct” that emphasise prosecutions over “more fundamental and systemic governance reforms” and that focus on prevention and incentives for integrity. For example, all Nigerians are victims of corruption; People are resorting to self-help because they cannot have the necessities of life, this is an area that must be addressed before anticorruption measures can have any success. If you want to eliminate corruption in the Nigeria Police Force, for example, you cannot do that without solving the problem of welfare and accommodation of the police personnel and so it is for other forces and the civil service. Every class of the society has one thing or another against the state and so this must be accounted for in any future anticorruption strategies. As another interviewee noted: So, if they do not tie all these things together, then they have a major uphill task. they are not providing them water, they are not providing them electricity, they are not providing them good schools, they are not providing good health care, they are not providing them good health accommodation, and then they have a major issue talking about corruption. When all these things are in place, whoever wants to be corrupt, they will now be spending on only 10% of their population, it will be addressing. If they are absent, they will be addressing 80% of their population. And it will make it appear, as if your system is not doing, what it should do. The truth is that you are running after too many people [sic] (Senior Official, EFCC).

Corruption is rampant in underdeveloped and transition economies. Not, due to the innate character of the people in those countries, but because the circumstances are suitable for it. For instance, the incentive to increase one’s earnings is tremendously high, worsened by poverty, meagre and inadequate public service pay, and the dearth of risk spreading mechanism (such as insurance and well-developed market).

The insufficiency of public sector pay contributes immensely to petty corruption driven by need, thus safeguarding living wages is essential to public sector productivity and effectiveness. Often, low pay is responsible for the mad struggle by public officials to get whatever is going and to compensate for the shortfall in their salaries. One interviewee commented that infrastructure and agitation for larger salaries are so interwoven in Nigeria, that it will be practically impossible to counter corruption without addressing these variables simultaneously: Whereas if governments provided good quality free education, the civil servant or public servant will not be harassing them for more salaries. The salaries he is looking for now: is to see that he can take his child private school, the salaries he is looking for, or money he wants to steal, is to be able to take his wife for surgery in a first-class hospital or take her abroad. When all these things are working, the man’s mind is at rest, in that whether he is on tour anywhere in the country, an ambulance will come pick his family member and is getting immediate response. He does not need, to know who the doctor is. But today in this country, if one does not have a doctor in his family or do not know doctors, he is finished. The third one, has to do with accommodation, these are all Maslow requirements. If one has accommodation that is tight generally to his public or civil service, nobody will push him, to want to steal a penny, wherever he is working, that will temper with the public sector housing, he is given, which at the end of 30 years, he is paying mortgage, it belongs to him (Senior Official, OAUGF).

Enhancing infrastructure is a key component of the 2030 Development Agenda, mentioned explicitly in three of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs 6, “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”; SDG 7, “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”; and SDG 9, “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”) and essential for achieving many others. Eventually, countering corruption is not just about ‘fighting corruption’; it is about reinforcing the public confidence in, and loyalty to, the state – and strengthening the state’s financial and policy capabilities to work for the citizens. According to 14 (2) of the Constitution of federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, [CFRN], the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. The Oxford Lexico Dictionary defined welfare as: ‘Statutory procedure or social effort designed to promote the basic physical and material well-being of people in need’ – such as the provision of quality education, housing, healthcare and basic infrastructure to the citizenry. As one interviewee noted, it is about government responsibility: Let’s talk about government responsibility to the people. people say their salaries are not enough, because they spend huge sum of money in getting those services, that ordinarily should have come at discounted rate from government, if at allgovernment would charge for the services. people find themselves paying exorbitantly for two reasons: (1) may be the one, that the government provide are not even in existent, so they must seek for private sources, for the provision of those services, and they must pay through their noses. (2) or the one that the governments provide if it is in existent, it is of poor quality, it is inadequate, or because they must bribe the government offices that provides these services (Senior Official, BPP).

Another interviewee described the fashion in which the implementation of certain social welfare measures can lead to further corruption, due to the interference of local officials: So, if one’s salary is low, and he must take his wife or child to hospital, and to pay for things he should not have pay for, or bribe his way to the hospital to be attended to, Or the hospital is not just functioning, and he must take his wife or child to a private clinic, where he has to pay a huge sum of money, that his low salary would not be able to cope with. When he must take his child to a private school, because the public schools has collapsed. and how did that happened; because those who oversee inspecting the school: the directors, or the federal ministry of education, they are negligent of their duty. They do not go for the inspection anymore, and they themselves allowed the public sector schools to crash. So, they set up their own private schools, and people desirous to give their children a good education, they are compelled to go to their private schools, so deliberately they raked the public schools Member 2, PACAC [41].

Thus, Corruption is a symptom that something has gone wrong in the management of the state.

Institutions designed to govern the interrelationships between the citizen and the state is used instead for personal enrichment and the provision of benefits to the corrupt. A reduction in corruption depends on economic development. It is thus for each country concerned to draw up its own strategy, by which it can then lead to a productive circle of development and good governance. For example, instead of creating a specialised enforcement body, a greater anticorruption result might be attained by less direct programme measures that may not have an obvious relationship to the acts of corruption being observed. This would include steps such as providing more and better schools. or a fairer legal system. And the provision of social infrastructure – healthcare (hospitals), education (schools and universities), public facilities (community housing and prisons) and transportation (railways and roads). These designs serve as the natural cushioning for societies and nations [42]. As this interviewee observed: First, starting from the root: that is identified the weakness within the system, address those weaknesses to remove a lot of opportunities. Then one need also, to addresses the issue of rationalization, because one of the key issues of rationalization, is that everyone is doing, and getting away with it. If they can also, have decisive sanction, to limit the rationalization, that will also help and of course, tied to the rationalization issue is remuneration, which keeps coming up, in terms of public sector corruption. people saying: they are not paid and all that, especially in an environment where there is dearth of infrastructure, the natural cushioning, which the state, could have done in certain areas; in terms of education of children, in terms of health, is not there. So, people from there limited income, still must provide alternatives to these things, expensive alternatives at that (Member 2, NEITI) [43, 44, 45].

A review of one of the 20-convicted case files consider for this paper shows the rationalization issue is tied to remuneration, which keeps coming up, in terms of public sector corruption, in an environment where there is dearth of infrastructure: In July 2017 a High court of the Sokoto Judiciary sentenced one Anthony Mbanefo, A public servant working with the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), to two years imprisonment for collecting N20 million each from two companies (Crest Code and Dew Lands), in which, he has direct acquisition of private interest (In connivance with the private sector). In respect of two contracts awarded by his employer (FERMA), to execute the two road projects in Sokoto State, one of which was terminated because the defendant converted the money, he collected to his private use [45, 46, 47, 48].