PENSION REFORMS •Before the Jonathan administration came on board, the pension funds administration regime was one the major channels through which public funds running into hundreds of billions of Naira are misappropriated by corrupt officials. •Problems associated with the pension management system include embezzlement, falsification of records, Ghost pensioners, obsolete administrative structure and denial of pensioners their due entitlements. This was what necessitated the setting up of the presidential pension Reform Task Team. The activities of this important task force resulted in the following: •Detection and deletion of over 73,000 Ghost/Fake pensioners from the Head of Service/police pension office. •Stoppage of a monthly theft of over N4 billion from the National treasury. •Saving a monthly sum of over N1billion from the police monthly pension releases. •Discovery of over 50,000 unpaid pensioners and immediate payment of their entitlement. •Discovery of over N2.7billion fraud by the Nigeria Union of Pensioners. •Seizure of about 200 properties including choice hotels and cash worth billions of Naira from corrupt public officials. •Arrest and on-going prosecution of pension fraud suspects by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). •Introduction of a more efficient tamper-proof pension funds management system. ELECTORAL REFORMS •President Goodluck Jonathan that this important process has been sanitized in a manner unprecedented in our political history. •The reform carried out in this sector is responsible for the conduct of elections assessed by local and international observers as credible, free and fair. •He has given the Nations electoral body a free hand to carry out its statutory duties without any form of direct or indirect manipulation. It takes a man who is committed to eradicating political corruption to do this in view of the apparent desperation of some politicians to capture power at all cost. PORTS REFORMS •Opportunities for bribery, documents forgery and other sharp-practices in the Nigerian ports have been substantially removed through a number of measures introduced by both the Ministries of Finance and that of Transport. •A Presidential committee on ports reform and monitoring has worked assiduously to reduce congestion in our ports with the ultimate goal of a 48-hour goods clearing policy. The reforms in this sector are helping: • To improve efficiency and transparency in ports operations and management. •Reduce charges and promote competition. •Facilitate the development of the transport sector. •Eliminate ports congestion. •Reduce government’s financial burden. LEGAL AND JUDICIAL REFORMS •The Jonathan administration has since its inception been concerned securing convictions of suspects accused of economic crimes within a reasonable time frame. • On the occasion of the swearing in of Justice Miriam Aloma Mukhtar as Chief Judge of the Federation in July 2012, President Jonathan admonished the new CJ to consider the creation of special courts and designation of special judges to adjudicate on corruption cases. •In addition, the President as the head of the Executive Arm of government has also initiated a reform of the criminal justice system as a means of plugging loop holes often exploited by counsels to delay trial of persons accused of corruption. •The office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice has completed a new set of proposals which has been sent to the National Assembly. This bill, when passed into law, will remove incidence of frivolous injunctions, interlocutory motions, adjournments and other abuse of court processes by counsel employed by suspects in corruption cases. •The CJN has keyed into the crusade for a reform of the judicial system by President Jonathan by taking steps to weed out judges who acts of omission and commission are subverting delivery of justice. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT •The signing of the Freedom of Information Act into law by President Jonathan in May 2011 represents a water-shed in the anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 10:28:25 +0000
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