Code of Conduct Bureau Gets Standard Operational Procedure

Anayo Okolie

In a move to strengthen the internal workings of the Code of Conduct Bureau, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a Standard Operational Procedure for the agency. The SOP was approved by the president in December 2016 and gazetted as Code of Conduct Bureau Standard Operational Procedure, 2017 on January 30.

This is the first time such an operational procedure would be consummated and approved by a president. Previously, efforts in this direction by the CCB executive council had always been sabotaged by the civil servants, who thought the agency should operate as a routine ministry contrary to the operational structure which the constitution intended.

But after a careful vetting by the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice and the legal team in the Presidency, the SOP was approved.

Under the SOP, the chairman and members of the CCB, being referred to as the “Bureau Executive Council” in the document, is the “supreme and decision making authority” of the agency responsible for the “full control and management” of its funds.

The main features of the SOP include more proactive provisions for asset investigation and tracking, devolution of activities to the state offices of CCB, and strengthening of CCB’s position as the only anti-corruption agency that does not report to any government officer, including the President.

The civil servants’ resistance against any form of reform in the agency had compelled the CCB executive council to approach the AGF for interpretation of Section 160 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. It is on the strength of that interpretation that the SOP was produced.

The CCB was established in 1988 and incorporated in the 1989 Constitution, making it the first anti-corruption agency in Nigeria. The Bureau has an enormous constitutional power to function as a watch dog over the conduct and behaviour of all public officers, ministries, department and agencies of government at all levels.

The constitution gives the CCB two important instruments to fight corruption: the Code of Conduct for Public Servants and an asset declaration mechanism. The expectation of the constitution is that CCB will deploy these two key tools to promote ethics and integrity among public officials, in such a way as to prevent illicit accumulation of wealth at the expense of the public.