The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions has disclosed that its findings after interfacing with government agencies revealed that corruption is more endemic in the civil service than in other sectors.
According to the chairman of the committee, Senator Ayo Akinyelure (PDP, Ondo), civil servants are more corrupt than the political class.
This was stated on Wednesday at a two-day workshop on Governance, Accountability, Ethics, and Due Process in Public and Private Sector Establishments in Nigeria.
He said for President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to win the anti-graft war, it must first get rid of corruption in the civil service.
He said the fact that public servants spend more years in service than politicians explained: “the reason corruption persists in the public sector.”
He said: “Civil servants are the masters of (governance) procedures. They spend 35 years in service; while legislators and other politicians seek for votes every four years from the people to renew their mandates.”
He stressed the need for good governance, accountability, ethics, and due process across public and private sector establishments in Nigeria.
Akinyelure said: “The contemporary Nigerian society appears to have been plague-ridden with divergent problems varying from fraud, corruption, failed contracts, failed banks, insurgency and high level of insecurity.”
