The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has commended the efforts of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, to tackle corruption in the country particularly in the pharmaceutical and food industries.

Chairman of the Commission, Mr Ekpo Nta who was represented by Deputy Director in the Commission, Mr. Akeem Lawal, gave the commendation during the flag-off of a 3-day sensitisation workshop for NAFDAC Staff in Enugu.

The activity was put together by the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) of the Agency.

Lawal said NAFDAC as an Anti-Corruption compliant agency has taken leadership through the instrument of ACTU to strengthen its system and put in place workable strategies that prevent corruption within the system and has helped immensely in the successes recorded in the fight against counterfeit regulated products.

Earlier, Director-General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii who was represented by the Director of Special Duties, Dr. Abubakar Jimoh said in order to enthrone transparency; the Agency introduced an e-Registration process through computerization to allow the client initiate and monitor his or her application for product registration from the comfort of their room. This, according to him, has prevented the incidence of corruption hitherto associated with the process.

Further, Jimoh said other strategies adopted by the Agency, especially the use of cutting-edge technologies such as the TRUSCAN and Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) were deployed to check the incidence of counterfeiting on-the-spot and prevent fraudulent practices.

He attributed the huge successes recorded by the Agency, especially the reduction of the prevalence of counterfeit anti-malarial drugs from 64 percent in 2005 to just 3.4 percent in 2014 to the multi-layered and well co-ordinated strategies that are antithetical to corruption.