The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, has advocated for sufficient funding of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to enable it adjudicate on corruption related cases.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ayo Akinyelure (PDP Ondo Central), had during the 2022 budget defence of the Tribunal on Friday bemoaned the meagre appropriation, wondering how CCT couldn’t be funded enough like other anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria.
Senator Akinyelure after listening to the CCT Chairman, Danladi Umar, on budget performance of the Tribunal for the year, 2021 and the projection for 2022, noted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has a core agenda of tackling corruption which the CCT was strategic, insisting that the budget envelope was too small for effective operation of the agency.
He wondered how the Tribunal that was supposed to serve the entire country with public officers working in over 900 agencies of government be so underfunded at a time that erring public servants should be made to account for their deeds.
“You must determine all the cases referred to you and let Mr President know that you are promoting his anti corruption agenda.
“Your silence over the meagre allocation to your agency to fight corruption is not good enough for the government of President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.
Umar had in his submissions, said the sum of N232 million was appropriated to CCT in 2021 out of which N174.2m was released, according to the document submitted to the Committee.
He lamented over the challenges of under-funding being faced by the Tribunal on yearly basis even as it is the only Court in Nigeria that sits and determine cases with its nationwide jurisdiction.
“We have not been able to deal with all the cases referred to us due to underfunding. The CCT is only one body and we have to go to different places in the country.
“If we have other divisions of the Tribunal in the six geopolitical zones, it will reduce the enormity of our work here in Abuja. We cannot be everywhere”, he said.
As a way out, the committee through its Chairman, told the CCT boss to submit a request demanding for more resources with a proof of what they want to procure that would aid the workings of the Court in 2022 for approval.
“We give you till Monday (15th November, 2021) to come up with a request to the National Assembly with a justification to enable us to present a position paper on the urgent needs of the Tribunal,” he said.
