Receives 282 Actionable Tips Via Policy
The Federal Government, on Friday said its Whistleblowers’ policy is yielding results, as Nigerians continue to cooperate in the task of flushing out corruption from the system, offering useful tips, besides calls to commend the initiative.
To encourage people to come forward with useful information on cases of fraud in the country, the Federal Government offered such whistleblowers whose information leads to the recovery of between one and five billion Naira will be 5% for the first N1bn and 4% of the remaining N4bn, after which any amount over N5 billion will attract 2.5% reward.
A statement by Festus Akanbi, Special Assistant (Media) to Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun on Friday, said 282 tips were received through telephone calls to its hotline, short message service (SMS), its dedicated website and electronic mails (emails), out of a total of 2,251 communications as at March 24, 2017.
A breakdown shows that while there has been 1,550 phone cals to the dedicated number: 0909-806-7946; there were 412 short message service (SMS) to the dedicated number; 194 emails (to: whistle@finance.gov.ng); and 95 through the website (www.whistle.finance.gov.ng)
The statement further broke the 282 tips into 49 calls made to the dedicated phone number by Nigerians to give useful information about fraudulent activities, besides 87 SMS and 95 tips received through the website and another 51 emails.
A total of 154 tips from the lot were found to be actionable, involving such fraudulent acts as contract inflation and conversion of government assets to personal use; ghost workers, payment of unapproved funds and embezzlement of salaries of terminated personnel.
Others include: “improper reduction of financial penalties, diversion of funds meant for distribution to a particular group of people (farmers), non-remittance of pension and NHIS deductions, failure to implement projects for which funds have been provided, embezzlement of funds received from donor agencies, and embezzlement of funds meant for payment of personnel emoluments.”
The list also has: violation of TSA (Treasury Single Account) regulations by keeping funds in commercial banks, violation of FIRS (VAT) regulation by adjusting Value Added Tax payment, non-procurement of equipment required for aviation safety, money laundering and diversion of funds meant for approved projects.
Taking advantage of the WhistleBlowers Act, there were also tips about illegal sale of government assets, diversion of revenue (Internally Generated Revenue), financial misappropriation (embezzlement), concealed bailout funds, mismanagement of microfinance banks, illegal recruitments and violation of Procurement Act.
The Federal Government has also offered to protect whistleblowers.
According to him, the reward for any amount between
