Adedayo Akinwale ín Abuja
Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) has decried the inadequate budgetary appropriation for Public Complaints Commission (PCC) in the 2020 Appropriation Act.
To this end, the union called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly, to as a matter of urgency, intervene to help ordinary Nigerians get justice for free and help the fight against administrative corruption, which directly breeds other forms of corruption.
PASAN National President, Mr. Mohammed Usman, and Zonal Vice President, Mr. Labi Josiah, and the union Chairman, chapter, Ibeku Chijioke, stated this while addressing a joint press conference yesterday in Abuja.
“At this juncture, the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria is calling on the Federal Government of Nigeria, the leadership of the National Assembly and President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the plight of the commission thereby giving ordinary Nigerians succour to their quest for justice. We wish to remind Mr. President of his manifesto in year 2015 wherein he promised Nigerians to strengthen the Nigerian Ombudsman Institution,” the union said.
The union added that in view of the present administration’s core mandate of fighting corruption, it was pertinent to note that administrative corruption was the foundation of any form of corruption and therefore a commission with the mandate to fight against administrative corruption should not be neglected.
The union alleged that PCC offices nationwide were in comatose thereby leaving Nigerians seeking administrative and social justice stranded.
It added that ombudsman is an internationally recognised institution that brings justice to the downtrodden, saying the importance of the ombudsman all over the world particularly in Nigeria could never be overemphasised.
The union noted that over the years PCC has been able to bring succour to the ordinary Nigerians and downtrodden, but there existed a huge deficiency in working materials, operational logistics and the general welfare of the commission.
The union added that for the past years, the commission has been grossly underfunded.
It stated: “In 2018, the commission’s budget was finally reviewed upwards to N7.4 billion which to our greatest dismay was not funded; only about N4.2 billion was released.
“It’s saddening that the plight of the commission is not being looked into and so we the members of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria will not support deliberate attempt to render redundant, the only anti-corruption institution directly under the National Assembly, saddled with the mandate of delivering social and administrative justice to the ordinary Nigerian.”
The union said the commission remains the voice of the voiceless and the watch dog of the society, and an institution with unique ability to give feedback on government policies and governance.
