A right group, Access to Justice has said the appropriation of too much power to the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, was responsible for the poor performance of the tribunal.
The Executive Director of the group, Joseph Otteh, while speaking at a public presentation; tagged “The Bump on a Log: Why the Code of Conduct Tribunal Malfunctions and How it can be Reformed” in Lagos, said the CCT was unable to perform within the required operational level because it is operating with a flawed enabling legal framework.
According to Otteh, the tribunal lacks institutional independence and functions under the presidency.
Otteh said, “The constitution and Code of Conduct and Tribunal Act do not make adequate provisions on how the tribunal should be administered.
“The tribunal lacks institutional independence and functions under the presidency. There is no effective oversight body, mechanism or system in place to monitor how its constitutionally allocated powers are exercised.”
“No other judicial body or authority has quite the same powers and authority to punish breaches of the Code of Conduct Act as the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
“The tragedy, though, is that in spite of its extraordinary powers and strategic importance to the fight against corruption, the tribunal has largely been a toothless bulldog that has hardly barked at corruption, or, probably, even blinked at it.
“Since its establishment in 1989, the tribunal has had a well-documented history of poor performance, there is very little the tribunal has accomplished or can show for in terms of its mandate.”
The group expressed concern over the fact that too much power is concentrated on the chairman of the CCT, which ought to belong to its board of three members.
“Mr. Danladi Umar has run the organization like a personal fiefdom – a place where he is the dictator-in-charge – such that those who do not grovel to him or who try to warn him off his transgressions enter his black book and are vilified and targeted afterwards,” he said.
Otteh called for a legislative and constitutional reforms to strengthen the institutional and administrative framework of the tribunal.
“The Code of Conduct Tribunal should no longer operate as an agency or institution under the executive branch of government,”
“Its role and functions are judicial. As such, it should be established under the judicial branch of government and be supervised by judicial bodies like the National Judicial Council or the Federal Judicial Service Commission.
“Amendments should make clearer demarcation and allocation of powers between the members of the Board of the Tribunal, that is, the Chairman and two members,” Otteh said.
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