2025 Assessment: ICPC Laments Poor Adherence to Accountability Rules in MDAs
Nigeria’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), has revealed widespread weaknesses in ethics, accountability and internal controls across federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), despite modest gains in financial management.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, during the presentation of the 2025 Ethics and Integrity Compliance (EIC) Scorecard for selected MDAs, the ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Aliyu, SAN, who was represented by the Director of the Systems Study and Review Department, Mr Olusegun Adigun, announced the conclusion of the 2025 deployment of the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS) and the ACTU Effectiveness Index (AEI), the Commission’s flagship tools for measuring ethical compliance in the public service.
Out of 357 MDAs covered nationwide, none achieved full compliance. Only 48 MDAs (about 14%) showed substantial compliance, while over 40% recorded poor compliance and nearly 7% were outright non-compliant. An additional 13 MDAs were labelled non-responsive and classified as high-risk.
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The assessment uncovered systemic weaknesses: many MDAs lack clear core values, strategic plans, whistleblower policies, or up-to-date codes of conduct. Over 240 MDAs do not have accessible whistleblowing frameworks, more than 140 lack annual training plans, and dozens still rely on manual record-keeping. Financial accountability gaps were also evident, with several MDAs failing to remit internally generated revenue, submit audited accounts, or follow procurement rules.
According to the report, the performance of Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs) was equally troubling. More than half were rated ineffective or dormant, while nearly a quarter of MDAs had not even established an ACTU, in breach of national anti-corruption requirements.
Dr. Aliyu warned that persistent non-compliance and weak administrative systems are strong indicators of deeper governance failures and heightened corruption risks. He stressed that such shortcomings fall “below acceptable public service standards” and are “entirely unacceptable.”
While acknowledging improvements in some areas of financial management, the ICPC Chairman said progress remains uneven and fragile. He pledged that the Commission will intensify corrective actions, including system reviews, risk assessments and enforcement measures, to close governance gaps and strengthen ethical conduct across the public sector.
“The tools exist,” Aliyu concluded, “but without leadership commitment, proper resourcing and consistent application, integrity in public service cannot be guaranteed.”
By PRNigeria
