FEC approves Executive Bill on whistle blowers, rues 2016 policy has lost its bite

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday scrutinized and approved a bill on whistleblowers policy to be transmitted to the National Assembly for consideration, regretting that it has lost its momentum.

The Executive Bill 2022 is expected to strengthen the fight against corruption and to enable protection for whistleblowers who provide information for the government.

Persecondnews recalls that in December 2016, a year after President Muhammadu Buhari took power, the administration launched the policy that was facilitated through the Federal Ministry of Finance.

As envisioned, it was to encourage people to voluntarily disclose information about fraud, bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct, government assets and any other form of corruption or theft.

It rewards a whistle-blower, who provides information about any financial mismanagement or tip about any stolen funds to the ministry’s portal with 2.5% to 5% from the recovered funds by the federal government.

Disclosing this at Wednesday’s FEC meeting chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said: “The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning presented a number of memos today.

“The first is the draft whistleblower bill for 2022. This memo has been reviewed by council and approved with a provision to ensure alignment with the Evidence Act.

“The purpose of operationalizing and putting in place a whistleblower bill is to strengthen the fight against corruption and to also enable protection for whistleblowers that provide information for use by government.

“As you know since 2016, the council had approved the setting up of the Presidential Initiative of Continuous Audit (PICA). PICA has been working in partnership with EFCC, ICPC, DSS, NFIU as well as the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.

“We noticed that the whistleblower policy response has lost momentum. We embarked on engagements in the six geo-political zones and one of the main outcome that we found is that people are concerned about their safety as a result of providing information.”

“So, this bill is critical to ensure the effectiveness of the retention of the whistle policy,” Ahmed told a briefing of
State House correspondents.

On life insurance cover for federal public and civil servants, Ahmed disclosed that the Council approved N9.24 billion for the 2022/2023 Group Life Insurance cover for them following a memo presented by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan.

The minister also said:“The Head of Service of the Federation presented a memo to Council on Group Life Insurance Cover for the period 2022 to 2023.

“This is an insurance cover that is covering all government officials in all government agencies, military and intelligence agencies. Council approved the total sum of N9.24 billion for the insurance cover for 2022 to 2023.

“As you know, the insurance will take effect from the date of payment and in Nigeria, by our laws, the insurance cover is 30% of the annual emolument of any staff of government that is deceased and this cover is paid by the insurance company to the beneficiaries of the deceased staff.”