Prof. Itse Sagay, the chairman of the presidential advisory committee against corruption (PACAC), has said that a whistle-blower can get as low as one percent commission from the government if the amount of money recovered is very large.
Prof Sagay who said this while speaking at an evaluation workshop organized by PACAC on the policy said that the promised reward could be lower than what the policy specifies especially when the amount of money to be recovered is a large sum.
The government had promised informants 2.5 percent of the recovered money in the whistle-blower policy introduced in 2016 with the aim to fight corruption.
He said: “Nigerians should be aware that not every whistle-blower is entitled to five percent. One controversial issue in the whistleblowing policy is the question is remuneration. The public seems to be fixated on the five percent which is the maximum. It can be as little as one percent. If it is an extremely large amount, the whistle-blower cannot receive up to five percent, for instance the $43m recovered in Ikoyi. It can be as low as one percent.”
He also said that the government has plans to create incentives for whistle-blowers in cases not involving funds. He said “I think a fund will be created for that; a separate fund. So that those who give information on such practices will get a reward. As we know, a lot of whistle-blowers exposed quite a number of looters. There have been others which have not received the same publicity as that of Ikoyi. But since then, definitely there has been a slight reduction in the frequency of whistleblowing. We want to use this dialogue to assure potential whistle-blowers that not only will they get their remuneration but they are also going to be protected.”
In a similar development, the minister of finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has said that a total of N143 billion has been recovered by the federal government through the whistleblowing policy.
The minister who was represented by the head of the Whistle-Blower Unit at the ministry, MK Dikwa, has said that 8,373 enquiries, including 1231 financial tips, have been received from the public.
The minister also said that there is still work to be done to recover the stolen loots.