The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB)
says the level of compliance with the declaration of assets by public office
holders in the country is not encouraging at all.
Mohammed Isah, chairman of the
bureau, disclosed this when he featured on NAN Forum in Abuja.
According to him, even though
there is an improvement from what it used to be in time past, there is need for
all public officers to know that they are duty bound to declare their assets.
“What we met that used to be the
level of compliance has now risen to a certain level, the nature of the subject
that we are expected to cover is too wide,” he said.
“And, our main predicament is the
issue of enlightenment people have little or no knowledge about their
obligations or relations to compliance to with the Code of Conduct for public
officers.
“So, the level of compliance is
not encouraging at all.”
On the issue of accessing
information as declared by public officers, the chairman said the Freedom of
Information (FOI) Act provides that an individual, such as a private person,
would be given access to such document.
“If anybody wishes to access
information as declared by a public officer in the custody of the bureau, the
law has laid down conditions precedent for that particular individual as a
private person to access that information,” he said.
“The Freedom of Information Act
(FOI) is very clear and is very explicit in relation to this.
“And, paragraph three of the
third schedule of the constitution as well as the CCB and CCT Act provides that
it is the national assembly that will give out the guidelines for accessing the
information that is in custody of the bureau of declarant and those guidelines
are still much in place.
“So, if anybody as a private
person or private organisation wants to access asset declaration or information
contained in asset declaration of any public officer, those conditions laid
down by FOI Act must be fulfilled.”
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