The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, has advocated the deepening of transparency in the Oil and Energy Sector of the economy to reduce Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs).
He made the call at the Transparency and Accountability Summit organised by the House of Representatives’ Anti-Corruption Committee held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
The theme of the Summit is “Enhancing Transparency in the Oil and Gas Sector: Challenges and Prospects”.
In a goodwill message to the Summit, Prof. Owasanoye stated that corruption and opacity of operations had undermined the benefit of the natural resource to the host communities and the country.
He identified other inhibiting factors as incompetent governance, fraudulent revenue management, and insensitive treatment of environmental and host community issues.
According to him, poor governance structure has fuelled many anomalies in the oil and gas sector including the menace of illicit financial flows (IFFs).
“Deepening Transparency in the Oil and gas Sector will reduce IFFs thereby leading to increased revenue, improved health care, education, improve infrastructure development in Nigeria, and lead to better patriotism and nationalism from the citizenry.
