Digitizing govt processes, operations, key to curbing corruption – Pantami

The minister made the observation at a National seminar on Anti-Corruption organized by the Code of Conduct Bureau, (CCB) with the support of Central Bank of Nigeria with the theme: “Code of Conduct Bureau: Fighting Corruption For Socio-Economic Development in Nigeria held in Abuja

Pantami who was represented by the Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), during the seminar called for the digitisation of government processes to reduce the scourge in the country.

He said, “When you Digitize government operations and processes, nobody will have monopoly of power to compromise, nobody will do things at his discretion because when the process is being automated, there is no need to meet physically to get services, everything will be opened and transparent. This will democratize government service delivery thereby ensuring accountability, simply because records are been kept and can be checked at any time needed”.

The Minister revealed that the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy have been doing a lot towards curbing sharp practices which are stunting the growth and development of the country. “There is need to put down strategies and policies that will mitigate such act. This will pave ways for speedy development of the country, he remarked.

Dr. Pantami assured the organisers that the Ministry is in full support of the activities of Code of Conduct Bureau that aimed at tackling and eliminating corruption practices across the country with the motive of creating an enabling environment for transparency and accountability of the activities of government.

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Barrister Abubakar Malami (SAN) in his remarks applauded the organizers of the seminar for putting up the event at a time such is needed to deepening the anti-corruption war of the government.

While disclosing that war against corruption is one of the cardinal points of the administration, Barrister Malami restated the critical and vital roles of CCB in building a corrupt-free nation.

Malami said that there is need to make government operations and processes open and transparent. This, he said would ensure accountability.

The Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau, Prof. Isah Mohammed stated that seminar was the first of it’s kind in the history of the organisation adding that its objective is to reduce corrupt tendencies at the recovering stage of COVID 19.

He said, “This Bureau was established in response to the allegations of corruption against government operations in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s which resulted in coup and counter-coups with trillions of money stolen from both domestic and foreign bodies as a result of corrupt practices by public office holders and till date we are still striving to eliminate the scourge.

Mohammed asserted that there is need to join hands and work together to crack down on corrupt activities which is affecting the operations and processes in country. He, therefore, advocated for entrenching strategic policies that will reduce corrupt practices for attainment of goals and aspirations of the country.