By Lucky Isibor
The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) has commended the nine federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that complied with the submission of 2025 procurement plans and 2024 procurement records to the Bureau of Public Procurement and publication of same on the Nigeria Open Contracting Portal (NOCOPO) platform as directed by a circular from the Secretary of the Government of the Federation (SGF) of February 17, 2025.
The Executive Director of ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor who gave the commendation at the close out meeting of the Civil Society Advocacy to Strengthen Anti-corruption Reforms in Nigeria (CASARN) project, stated that the discovery was made in the two reports ANEEJ generated during the cause of implementation of the project which includes the report on the effectiveness of anti-corruption and transparency units in federal MDAs and assessment of the level of compliance of the open contracting and data publication on the NOCOPO portal.
The Civil Society Advocacy to Strengthen Anti-Corruption Reforms in Nigeria (CASARN) Project, was implemented by the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) under the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC II) Programme, led by International IDEA with funding support from the European Union (EU) and implemented both at the sub-national level in Edo State and at the national level.
While sharing the achievements of the project, Ugolor enumerated the challenges and appealed to participants to brainstorm on how to continue to deepen anti-corruption reforms and sustain the progress made as the project closes out.
“The CASARN project was designed to contribute to reducing corruption through robust civil society advocacy, strengthening governance systems, improving service delivery, and supporting the implementation of key anti-corruption reforms. Over the past 15 months, the project has been implemented both at the sub-national level in Edo State and at the national level. Its strategic focus areas included assessing the management framework and effectiveness of Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs) in federal MDAs, promoting MDA compliance with the Nigeria Open Contracting Portal (NOCOPO), advocating for the passage of the Whistleblower Protection Bill, and deepening transparency, accountability and anti-corruption reforms at state level.
“Today’s gathering marks an important milestone in our collective journey to advance accountability and strengthen Nigeria’s anti-corruption architecture. The CASARN Project served as a crucial platform for constructive engagement among civil society, government institutions and the media. Together, we have worked to strengthen institutional frameworks, monitor reforms, empower citizens, and promote transparency in public finance management. Since inception, the project has delivered a wide range of activities with active participation of many of you here today.
“These include the inception meeting; a high-level dialogue with Edo State governorship candidates to obtain commitments to transparency reforms; assessment of ACTU frameworks in federal MDAs; a study on MDAs’ compliance with NOCOPO and SGF circulars; Governance and Democracy weekly public-awareness TV programmes; strategic engagements on the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act in Edo State; FOI sensitization for permanent secretaries and heads of MDAs; and a dialogue on whistleblowing, asset recovery, and management frameworks. Through these interventions, CASARN has significantly expanded civic oversight, strengthened evidence-based advocacy, supported grassroots accountability, and advanced reforms that directly promote public-sector integrity.”
While sharing the achievements, Ugolor named the MDAs that complied with NOCOPO publication and the challenges the project encountered.
“We are proud to share some achievements. The project secured commitment from stakeholders to work collaboratively on the issues. In this regard, we have been working with ICPC, Bureau of Public Procurement, Edo State government, CSOs, media and other stakeholders to advance the project issues.
“We generated two comprehensive reports, the first report is on the effectiveness of anti-corruption and transparency units in federal MDAs. The second report assessed the level of compliance open contracting and data publication on the NOCOPO portal. Both reports have actionable recommendations on how to improve the situation. Additionally, the “Governance and Democracy” talk show on ITV Benin have been quite productive and reaching millions of citizens even beyond the State. Our NOCOPO compliance assessment report revealed that nine key federal institutions substantially complied with the SGF Circular of February 17, 2025, requiring the submission of 2025 procurement plans and 2024 procurement records to the Bureau of Public Procurement through the Nigeria Open Contracting Portal (NOCOPO) platform.
“Today, we are pleased to recognise these institutions.
The institutions are:University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada; Federal Medical Centre, Owo; National Obstetric Fistula Centre, Bauchi; Nigeria Institute for Sports (NIS); Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission; University of Abuja Teaching Hospital; Federal Medical Centre, Jabi Abuja; Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi; and Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital. Many other MDAs partially complied with the circular while many others failed to comply.”
In a remark, the Edo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua commended ANEEJ and its Executive Director, Rev.David Ugolor for sustaining anti-corruption advocacy and good governance. The Commissioner noted that corruption arises from abuse of discretionary powers vested in individuals by laws and policies and called for concerted efforts to change the mindset of people not to abuse such discretionary powers. He argued that when individuals monopolise discretionary powers, that there will not be accountability.
Afegbua assured that he will use his position as a Commissioner in the state to support further advocacy to sustain the achievements of the CASARN project and deepen the conversation after the close out.
In his remarks, the Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu Adamu (SAN) who was represented by Mr. Kupolati Kayode applauded the good job ANEEJ has done through the CASARN project; noting that its assessment of ACTUs has provided useful insight into how the initiative is functioning and outlined the steps the Commission is taking to close the observed gaps.
“It is to note that ANEEJ’s assessment has provided critical insights into how ACTUs are currently functioning by highlighting notable progress, persistent challenges and opportunities for reform. Findings show that while several ACTUs are making commendable efforts in sensitization, compliance monitoring and systems review, many units still struggle with inadequate resources, limited management buy-in, unclear reporting framework and weak enforcement of recommendations.
“Today‘’s session focuses on ANEEJ’s policy recommendations, which aim to strengthen ACTUs as frontline mechanisms against corruption within the public service. These recommendations, among other, emphasize improved funding, clearer mandates, better collaboration within ICPC, enhanced training for ACTU personnel and stronger oversight from agency managements.
“Importantly, the ICPC has taken severat steps to act on these recommendations. The Commission has increased technical guidance to ACTUs through enhanced training programmes and issued operational template to standardize ACTU activities across MDAs. In addition, ICPC has strengthened its supervisory roles by improving monitoring visits, encouraging MDAs leadership to mainstream ACTUs into organizational structures, and expanding system study and review exercise to support reforms recommended by the assessment. The Commission is also intensifying stakeholders’ engagement, collaborating more closely with the Civil Society group like ANEEJ to sustain momentum on preventive anticorruption initiatives.”
In a remark, the Edo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Roland Otaru (SAN) assured that the ministry will continue to collaborate with CSOs and other stakeholders in the state to strengthen anti-corruption war.
Otaru who was represented by Mrs. Stella Okojie, a Director in the ministry pointed out that the ministry has written to RoLAC to give it technical support in the drafting of the Edo State Whistleblower Protection Bill, guidelines for the implementation of the Freedom of Information Law among other anti-corruption related laws and policies.
The representative of RoLAC, Imonitie Omokhodion assured that the organisation will continue to collaborate with CSOs to advance the objectives of the CASARN project and deepen the conversation after the project close out. He called for collaboration of CSOs to continue to monitor the operations of the anti-corruption reforms CASARN championed and the progress achieved by CASARN project.