Ministry of Works and Housing has been commended over its enlightenment seminar organized for the staff for the purposes of guiding public officers on how to fill the Assets declaration forms and also help them to avoid conflicts of interest.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry Bashir Nura Alkali who gave the commendation at the seminar tagged “Enlightenment Seminar on Electronic guide for the completion of Assets declaration form and conflicts of interest” organized by the Anti Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) Unit of the Ministry, in Abuja, said the initiative would go along way in tacking issues associated with assets declaration by public office holders in the country.
Alkali said that one of the most critical part of Asset declaration was in filling the form and failure to fill the form and declaration was a crime.
He said, “One will not appreciate the importance of this exercise until one is invited to the Code of Conduct Tribunal ( CCT ) to answer questions bordering on Asset declaration.”
The permanent Secretary called on all staff of the Ministry to fill the forms properly when declaring their assets and advised that staff should not do anticipatory declarations on property or assets they have not acquired at the time they are declaring their assets.
During his presentation, the Deputy-Director, Education and Advocacy Services ( EAS ) of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Mr. Okwose Micheal said that the constitution empowers the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to deal with complaints of corruption by public servants for the breaches of its provisions.
According to him, some of these provisions include amongst others, conflicts of interest with duty, prohibition of ownership of foreign accounts, receiving of gifts or benefits of any kind for a job done, membership of societies, and most importantly, not declaring of one’s assets.
He explained that every public officer shall, within fifteen months after the coming into force of this Act or immediately after taking office and thereafter, at the end of every four years or at the end of terms of office shall declare his or her assets.
In his closing remarks, the Deputy Director and Head of ACTU of the Ministry, Barrister Sonny Inyang thanked the Permanent Secretary for graciously approving the holding of the seminar for staff saying, that it would go a long way in guiding them in filling the Asset form properly.
He promised that it would be a continuous exercise in order to assist staff to know the implication of not declaring their assets at the appropriate time.
