Worried by the spate of corrupt practices, especially among civil servants and other public officials which have crippled service delivery, Bauchi State Government has established a Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCAC).
The development followed the signing into law by Governor Bala Mohammed a bill recently passed into law by the State House of Assembly for the establishment of the Bauchi State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission.
While appending his signature on the law to make it effective and operational with immediate effect, the Governor declared that, with the establishment of the Commission, no case of corruption will go without being prosecuted in the state no matter who is involved.
Bala Mohammed during the brief ceremony held inside the Executive Chambers of the Governor’s Office Friday evening, said that “With the establishment of the state Anti-corruption Commission, therefore, no case of corruption will be overlooked at the state and the local government levels.”
He described the signing of the bill into law as “another milestone in the administration’s drive towards entrenching transparency and accountability in governance. We must deal with every aspect of corruption in order to have an effective service delivery.”
According to him, “the establishment of the Commission which is backed by law is part of the effort of my administration to take advantage of the federal structure of the country as enshrined in the constitution that gives state latitude to replicate functions that are also performed by federal agencies.”
Bala Mohammed stressed that “there are already existing federal and state government agencies that play complementary roles in the service delivery in both the social and economic sectors.”
He said that “Examples of such agencies include, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) which corresponds with the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) corresponding with State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB), National Pension Commission (PENCOM) and correspondingly, the State Contributory Pension Scheme, among others.”
The governor further said that the replication in the state, of agencies that also exist at the federal level, would greatly reduce the burden on the federal agencies, thereby, making them more effective and efficient.
“Similarly, the state agencies been close to the people and more conversant with the local culture, tradition and terrain are better placed to handle local issues, especially in the areas of security, investigation or prosecution of offences,” the governor said.
He further noted that the establishment of the Commission in the state and others at the subnational level would provide employment opportunities for the youth, thereby addressing security challenges, among others.
The governor added that “so many states have already domesticated the Anti-corruption law in order to ensure the administration of justice.”
He added that, “the state Anti-corruption Commission will handle cases of corruption at the state level due to the size of Nigeria which have burdened the EFCC and other federal agencies, leading to many cases remaining mostly uninvestigated.”
According to him, “we have so many cases that we have submitted and some public-spirited individuals, agencies have done that, but still they are not investigated and we have not gotten anything out of it to date due to the fact that there are so many of that cases with the ICPC and EFCC and the rest of the investigative agencies.”
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Speaking further, he said that, “Just like the Speaker has said, we have really studied all the already existing laws in the states and the federal agencies and ensured that there were no conflicts.”
He continued that, “we are doing it in furtherance of what was agreed even at the Governors Forum that such things be done at the states level so that we can bring enforcement and fight corruption in consonance with the drive of the current administration.”
The governor then expressed hope that the commission will be used to address macro and micro cases of corruption in governance so that resources would be made available for service delivery by the state government.
Speaking earlier before presenting the bill for assent by the Governor, Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Sulaiman Abubakar said that the bill was forwarded to the assembly last month for consideration.
Sulaiman who was represented by the Deputy Speaker, Danlami Kawule, noted that “understanding the importance of the bill, it was committed to the House Committee on Public Complaints, followed by all the necessary scrutiny and public hearing with all the relevant stakeholders.”
He added that “Your Excellency, I want to assure you that we consulted resource persons that have ideas on anti-corruption and other matters and finally this bill has scaled the third reading and we enacted this Bill to become a law that is why we are here before you for your assent.”
The Speaker assured that the House will continue to work in harmony with the Executive arm in order to bring development to the State and its people stressing that, they were elected to do just that.
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