Nigerian govt underfunding Public Complaints Commission, workers lament

Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) has called on the President, the leadership of the National Assembly and all relevant stakeholders to give priority to the Public Complaints Commission (PCC), which it says is the foremost anti-corruption agency in Nigeria.

The body criticised Federal Government’s poor funding of the PCC, saying that the N4.7bn allocated to PCC in the 2020 Appropriation Act.

PASAN noted that PCC handled a very high volume of cases, stating that between 2015 and 2018, it received a total of 209,745 cases and resolved a total of 87,461, leaving a total of 122,284 pending cases.

In the statement jointly signed on Thursday by the National President, PASAN, Mohammed Usman; Zonal Vice-President, Josiah Labi; and Chairman, FCT Chapter, Margaret Chijioke, the parliamentary workers noted that PCC, as the Nigerian ombudsman, was the machinery for the control of administrative excesses and non-adherence to procedures or abuse of law.

PASAN said, “The above statistics shows that despite the gross underfunding, the commission is still able to bring succour to the ordinary Nigerians and downtrodden. But there exists a huge deficiency in working materials, operational logistics and the general welfare of the commission.

READ ALSO: Osinbajo presides over last NEC meeting for 2019

“We wish to let you know that for the past years, the PCC has been grossly underfunded. In 2018, the commission’s budget was finally reviewed upwards to N7.4bn, which, to our greatest dismay was not funded; only about N4.2bn was released which is the usual. Since then, staff (members) under the umbrella of PASAN have been making efforts to see that the PCC gets adequate funding to discharge its duties. These include our wide consultations with the principal officers of the National Assembly.

“Unfortunately, the 2020 budget has been submitted, passed and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, yet there is no improvement on the PCC budget. It is saddening that the plight of the commission is not being looked into and, so, we the members of PASAN will not support deliberate attempt to render redundant, the only anti-corruption institution directly under the National Assembly, saddled with the mandate of delivering social and administrative justice to the ordinary Nigerian. The PCC remains the voice of the voiceless and the watchdog of the society, and an institution with unique ability to give feedback on government policies and governance.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now