By Victoria Ojeme

The Civic Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has written the International Monetary Fund, the World and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to scale-up anti-corruption measures in decision-making and subsequent disbursement of funds for the fight against coronavirus to check looting.

The Executive Director of CISLAC/ Transparency International Nigeria, Auwal Ibrahim MUSA said this in a letter sent to several international finance organization and donor bodies while highlighting the dire condition of the Nigerian health sector.

Musa said it is evident that Nigeria is poorly equipped to fight the COVID-19 pandemic if significant community transmission occurs.

“Nigeria’s health care system cannot cope with the population of over 200 million even at the best of times. There are only 7 testing labs and only one ventilator for 400 000 Nigerians! The low capacity of the health care system is further underscored by only 50 hospital beds per 1000 persons.  With the housing deficit of over 22 million units, half of Nigerian population lives in slums.  Social distancing is in these conditions unfeasible. Nigeria’s defence against the pandemic is thin with little room form complacency,” he said.

He quoted Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, as saying that “Nigeria is threatened by the twin shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanied sharp fall in international oil prices. Even before the crisis, more than half of Nigerians were living in abject poverty and without access to basic health services.”

This crisis has the potential to worsen the situation exponentially, unless complete and unreserved transparency in the health and economic response to this crisis is ensured.

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“In my capacity of the Executive Director of CISLAC/ Transparency International in Nigeria, I deeply appreciate the scale, speed and flexibility of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) response to this crisis. The IMF Executive Board is currently considering a request from the Nigerian government to receive financial assistance under the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument facility,’ Musa said.

He observed that with an increased influx of money, however, come increased risks of corruption. “As tens of millions of Nigerians under the poverty threshold are locked down and unable to feed themselves and their wards, we cannot afford waste due to fraud and corruption.”

“Three global civil society organizations – Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and Global Witness – have recently proposed key transparency and anti-corruption measures in the IMF’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

“We join this call and appeal to the IMF, the World Bank and other development partners and the private sector to highlight the importance of transparency and integrity in their engagement with the Government of Nigeria. We underscore that the crisis cannot weaken its prior commitments to anti-corruption.

“Furthermore, we would like to emphasize the critical roles of the United Nations Systems in Nigeria and the Government of Nigeria who recently launched the so-called COVID-19 Basket Fund to harmonize investments in a national pandemic response plan.

“With this letter, we respectfully ask that you complement these joint efforts with essential anti-corruption measures in decision-making as well as the subsequent disbursement of funds,” he said.

The said that CISLAC urges commitment to full transparency in emergency expenditures and assistance. “We welcome that information regarding financial and technical assistance is regularly published on the IMF and the World Bank websites. We urge all development partners and the government to publish details of the provided assistance so that the intended results can be independently verified and evaluated,” he said.

According to Musa, there should be scale up integrity in emergency public procurement. “Public procurement is a corruption ‘hot-spot’ in Nigeria. To mitigate risks such as hidden contracts, overpricing, collusion and bribery in Nigeria’s COVID-19 response, it is essential that transparency, openness, and integrity are preserved and that anti-corruption safeguards in government contracting are reinforced,” he said.

He added that “Competent anti-corruption and audit institutions must be given unreserved access to monitor all emergency funding provided by the Government, international lenders, private corporations and non-governmental organisations.”

“In addition, the government and all partners must pro-actively encourage whistleblowing where there is a suspicion of criminal misuse of emergency funds or incompetency in their management. International practice shows that corrupt practices and incompetence is hard to disclose if whistleblowing from insiders or those directly involved is not encouraged and supported,” he said.

“We call on the Government and international partners to actively encourage whistleblowers, guarantee their safety and ensure all reported cases are investigated in a transparent and open manner. Nigerian citizens must also be encouraged to use established complaint mechanisms by governmental or non-governmental agencies to ensure maximum accountability in the provision of emergency assistance.

“We reiterate that the health and economic responses must be accompanied by transparent and accountable oversight to prevent corruption and mismanagement of these resources. We acknowledge the vital role of the Government of Nigeria, private sector, international community and citizens at all have in ensuring that the emergency funding serves the intended purpose of preserving health and livelihoods of the people.

“CISLAC assures the Government, private sector, international community and all other partners of its unreserved support in combating the global crisis. Just as we are determined to work with all state and non-state actors in the spirit of social justice, solidarity and humanity to minimize the health pandemic and socio-economic crisis for the benefit of all Nigerians and beyond,” Musa said.

Vanguard