FG receives over 5,000 whistle blowing tips

-FG encourages more whistle blowing tips from the public.

-Promises total confidentiality of whistle blowers.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has disclosed that the federal government has received over 5,000 whistle blowing tips from Nigerians.

She, however, stated that out of that number, only 365 were considered actionable.

Speaking on “The Whistleblower Policy and its Implications for Public Servants” at the Bureau for Public Service Reform lunch time seminar, Nigeria’s minister of finance disclosed that out of the 365 tips considered actionable, more than half came from public servants.

The tips touched on issues such as contract inflation, ghost workers, illegal recruitments, misappropriation of funds, illegal sale of Government assets, diversion of revenues, and violation of TSA regulations, amongst others.

“Part of our work is to analyse trends and take corrective actions. For example many of the salary, tax and pension under remittance cases shared a common thread,” she said.

“Several cases where Institutions were found to have insufficient funds to meet there obligations often had illegal recruitments which bloated the wage bill and agencies responded by part paying or short paying salaries, whilst applying to FG for salary shortfall payments. We are revising our procedures for approval of recruitment, which will improve our budgeting and control.

“Equally in many cases where revenue has been diverted to accounts outside TSA, we have reviewed our reconciliation and receipting processes. So the information being provided is useful in driving process improvements.

“If as a civil servant, you have information about a possible misconduct or violation that has occurred, is on-going, or is about to occur, we implore you to come forward and report it,”‎ she added.