Tony Manuaka
The Federal Government has given reasons for the delay in fulfilling its obligation to the Whistleblower, who provided the tips that led to the recovery of funds stashed away in a property in Ikoyi, Lagos earlier this year.
Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun while giving reasons for the delay in payment, explained that the Ministry has in place detailed procedures for processing payments due under the Whistleblower Policy.
The procedures, she explained, were designed to prevent abuse and legal disputes and to ensure protection of the information providers.
She said the procedures include an application by the agency that recovered the funds including evidence of the recovery, confirmation that there are no pending legal issues on the recovery, verification of the identity of the information provider, calculation of the amount payable and computation of relevant taxes.
Adeosun further explained that payments are made in monthly batches to ensure control and to protect the identity of information providers. According to her, no fewer than 20 of such persons have so far been paid.
The Minister, however, assured that the payment due on the Ikoyi discovery is among those being processed in the November batch, which will be released within the current month.
She reaffirmed that the Whistleblowing Policy of the Federal Government remains one of the current administration’s successful initiatives and that the government is fully committed to ensuring that all those who responded to the policy and partnered with it in the recovery effort are paid in full and most importantly have their identity protected.
The Whistleblower Policy was introduced in December 2016 by the Federal Government as part of the initiatives to wage war against corruption. However, a recent comment credited to the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu to the effect that the Whistleblower in the Ikoyi recovery had become a millionaire infuriated the informant who was yet to receive the payment.
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