Finally, Monitoring Of National Anti-Corruption Strategy In MDAs Takes Off

Members of the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (M&E) of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) have finally commenced the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the NACS in pilot Ministries, Departments and Agencies in Abuja. The committee divided itself into six teams for effective monitoring of the different MDAs.

On Tuesday, the teams visited different MDAs including Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Public Complaints Commission (PCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC). The monitoring activity continues on Wednesday and Thursday with visits to some other MDAs such as the Bureau of Public Procurement, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and many others.

In a brief remark at the pre-monitoring meeting of the committee, Mr. Emmanuel Uche of the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) Programme, said the committee was very critical to set the agenda on the fight against corruption.

According to Mr. Uche, each MDA needs to understand what is prescribed for it in the NACS and how to achieve it. He added that baseline report of NACS implementation was a critical benchmark the committee needed to do.

Saying false start is better than no start, Uche noted, “We believe we can move the country out of the doldrums.”

Also speaking, the Head of the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR), Lilian Ekeanyanwu, thanked RoLAC for its great job in respect of the NACS. She said the work of the M&E Committee was not only to report positive outcome. “Negative outcome or no activity at all is a reportable issue under M&E and the treatment will trigger activity among those who are deploying the strategy. I also want to thank members of this committee for your patience and persistence because things have not really gone the way they are expected. Those of us who spent 10 years to get the National Anti-corruption strategy adopted did not expect that at this level, we will still be working at a slow pace. Despite all these, you have been very persistent; the chairman has been very enthusiastic.”

Ms Ekeanyanwu added, “As you will realise, if you have studied the document, TUGAR is the only constant in the M&E Committee. So if the work of this committee fails, TUGAR has failed. Realising that, we did not relax in looking for a way to activate this committee…I’m happy to announce that we have been able find another development partner who is willing to work with RoLAC to see that the work of this committee goes on. We have committed and signed MoU with McArthur Foundation to support certain activities relating to monitoring and evaluation. Part of the activities is to get consultants who are going to assist us not only in looking at the indicators we have already drawn up, we are going to the field and they will most critically analyse the report we get from the field.”

She further noted that they had sourced international consultants who had monitored other strategies in other countries that were implementing their own strategies and that they had also put together a team of national consultants who were quite experienced not only in monitoring and evaluation but in the country’s anti-corruption environment.

“So this team will effectively commence work in the middle of March. And the main activity within this programme is training for us as members of M&E.

“Do not despair at the way the NACS is going. It’s a Nigerian problem; and being Nigerian, we should all take responsibility and see what we can do within the constraints of those limitations,” she said.

The Chairman of the M&E Committee, Mr. Andrew Gandu, promised that the committee would use this week to make their baseline reports.

The NACS (2017 -2021) is a programme of the Federal Government aimed at providing a holistic national ant-corruption strategy for all sectors and stakeholders in the fight against corruption. Currently, it is funded by the European Union and administered by the British Council.

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