New Telegraph

FG faults TI rating process, alleges discrepancies

lai Mohammed)

lai Mohammed)

…says govt preventing corruption rather than prosecuting

The Federal Government has faulted the process adopted by the Transparency International (TI) in its rating of Nigeria Corruption Perception Index saying that there were discrepancies, especially in its data sources.
The government also disclosed that it is now more concerned with prevention of corruption by empowering the anti corruption institutions to monitor the process rather than arresting and prosecuting individuals after the deed may have been done.
Responding to the TI’s poor rating of the country’s corruption perception index in its latest reports, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who insisted that the rating did not reflect the actual corruption reality in the country, told State House Correspondents that “We actually also analysed the process that the TI used in the rating that was used recently and we found quite a few discrepancies in the rating process, including some data sources in which Nigeria’s course has remained flat over the past 10 years.
“What we said is that we take this ratings seriously, so we actually went and analysed the ratings and we found that there’ve been some gaps. It’s either we’ve not flooded enough data or they have not revised all data because we found it strange that the country’s rating in certain areas has remained the same for a period of 10 years and we are taking the media measures so that they can get this data in respect of these sectors because we believe that it’s not possible for you not to improve, for you not to lose points for 10 years. So there’s a bit of discrepancy there.
“There’s also need to understand why these occur and we’re looking at the robustness of our own methodology. We believe that overall, by the time our various reforms in the areas of ease of doing business and other preventive measures, start taking effect, our rating by TI in the next years would have substantially improved.
“In tackling corruption, you’ll first find out what are the causes of this corruption and you’ll find out that one of the major causes of our low rating by TI is largely because of the opaqueness in the ease of doing business Nigeria. In other words, you go to a port, you want to clear goods in the port, it takes you days.
“This is rated as very bad by TI. So the federal government, through its Presidential Council on Ease of Doing Business, has embarked on certain reforms at the ports, at the Corporate Affairs Commission, that will make it easier to do business.
“For instance, today at the Corporate Affairs Commission, it’s easier for you to register a company and get a certificate of registration better than it was two to three years ago. Also, the PEBEC has worked with many states in areas of record keeping, transfer of titles and the rest.
“These are more important to TI than the stealing of money or common theft that people perceive as corruption and I said these are preventive measures that government is taking.”

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