Whistleblower policy has lost momentum, Nigerians concerned about their safety —FG

The whistleblower policy has lost momentum due to fears about safety, the federal executive council (FEC) said on Wednesday.

The policy, launched in December 2016, encourages Nigerians to disclose information on fraud, bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct and any other form of corruption to the ministry of finance.

Speaking on the initiative after the FEC meeting at the presidential villa, Abuja, Zainab Ahmad, minister of finance, said a draft bill was introduced to save the policy.

“The ministry of finance, budget and national planning presented a number of memos today. The first is the draft whistleblower bill for 2022. This memo has been reviewed by council and approved with a provision to ensure alignment with the Evidence Act,” she said.

 “The purpose of operationalising and putting in place a whistleblower bill is to strengthen the fight against corruption and to also enable protection for whistleblowers that provide information for use by government.

“As you know since 2016, the council had approved the setting up of the presidential initiative of continuous audit (PICA). PICA has been working in partnership with EFCC, ICPC, DSS, NFIU as well as the office of the attorney-general of the federation.

“We noticed that the whistleblower policy response has lost momentum. We embarked on engagements in the six geo-political zones and one of the main outcome that we found is that people are concerned about their safety as a result of providing information. So this bill is critical to ensure the effectiveness of the retention of the whistle policy.”

The policy allows whistleblowers to earn 2.5% to 5% from the recovered funds by the Nigerian government.

The minister noted that the council approved the draft bill to strengthen the fight against corruption and ensure the protection of whistleblowers.