The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the national contact for Transparency International in Nigeria, conducted a one-day training on Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) and Compliance for civil society organisations.
The training took place at The Chesterfield Hotel Ikeja, Lagos on 30th August.
The training was organised as part of an ongoing project called “Integrity, Mobilisation, Participation, Accountability, Anticorruption and Transparency in Nigeria (IMPACT Nigeria), in collaboration with the TI-International Secretariat, Berlin and with support from Glabal Affairs Canada.
In his opening remarks at the event, the Coordinator of the Project, Mr. Kolawole Banwo, representing the Executive Director of CISLAC, Mr. Auwal Ibrahim Musa, indicated that for CSOs to effectively support the anti-corruption efforts of the government, they must be free of corruption, maintain integrity and be compliant with their internal policies and procedures, as well as, relevant external statutory and regulatory requirements otherwise they would become as guilty as government institutions and officials that they often criticise.
He noted that corruption has become so pervasive and systemic that CSOs must take extra measures to be free of it and not contribute to it through compromise in their operations by their interaction with multiple stakeholders in government, business and the donor community in their interventions.
He concluded that the training is aimed at equipping participants with basic skills to identify the internal and external risks of corruption related to their organizations and develop initial response for preventing corruption from materialising.
The training, which was facilitated by a Certified Risk Assessor, Thomas Ochepka, broadly covered issues related to stakeholder analysis, the general concept, conduct and purpose of Corruption Risk Assessment, Assessing Corruption Risk at the Personal, Environmental and Organisational Levels and developing an integrity plan.
The session was very practical with groups applying the various stages in CRA methodology to selected scenarios in the Health, Education and Power sectors.
There were 18 participants from different CSOs based in Lagos. The participants stated that the training was an eye-opener and hoped infuse the lessons learnt into the operations of their various organisations. They enjoined CISLAC to sustain the efforts in such trainings for non-state actors.
