The Anti-corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) of the Federal Medical Centre Yenagoa (FMCY), Bayelsa State has organised a one-day sensitization workshop for staff of key departments in the Hospital to enlighten them with the National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP) and the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS).
The event was held at the boardroom of FMCY, Bayelsa State on the 23rd of May, 2023.
Speaking on the topic entitled “Ethics & integrity compliance scorecard (EICS)”, Mrs. Anaele Oluchi who is an official of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) noted that in a bid to accomplish her task, ICPC developed an ethics and integrity compliance scorecard to outline some ethics and integrity standards that Ministry, Department and Agencies must comply with in management, performance, service and professional conduct settings.
She explained that in addition to the ethics and integrity compliance scorecard (EICS), ICPC uses Systems Study & Review (SSR), and Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) to ascertain the strengths, failures, and vulnerabilities of systems and procedures.
On his part, the Chairman of ACTU FMCY Chapter MLS. Zebedee Loveday Udu in a paper presentation entitled “The Overview of National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP)” stressed that the policy was developed by ICPC in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and National Orientation Agency to enhance values and integrity and tackle corruption in the society.
According to him, the NEIP was developed in response to the many damaging effects of corruption in both public and private sectors, with a view to help revitalize these sectors.
He observed that ICPC had earlier developed the National Values Curriculum (NVC) for teaching values in schools to young Nigerians as the National Ethics and Integrity Policy builds on the basics of the curriculum, to entrench positive values in the society.
The Assistant Director of Medical Laboratory Services highlighted the 7 core values of NEIP which are human dignity, voice and participation, patriotism, personal responsibility, integrity, national unity, and professionalism, and how participants can imbibe them, while enlisting the support of participants in promoting these 7 core values in their respective workplace and the society at large.
In another paper presentation entitled “Challenges in the deployment of the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard”, Barrister Okonny Ekianinima urged participants to strive to meet all the criteria demanded in the deployment of the Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard as it would enhance their productivity and efficiency as well as project their organizations as being fully compliant.
During an interactive discussion, participants appealed for regular workshops to enable them to appreciate the NEIP, etc.
Earlier, the ACTU Chairman in his welcome speech informed participants that the essence of this Sensitization workshop was to prepare FMCY to be top in the First 10 MDAs in ICPC rating recalling that FMCY emerged 35th (76.05%) out of 250 Federal Government parastatals/MDAs in Nigeria that complied and 5th position in the entire Health sector during the last assessment of EIC exercise
He added that in 2022, 252 MDAs responded and were rated according to degree of compliance. 52 MDAs who declined to respond were classified as “High Corruption Risk”(HCR) and are flagged for the attention of the public and further inquiries and actions.
The workshop drew participants from the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board ACTU, the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital counterpart, Ikpor Emmanuel of the ICPC as well as Staff of the key departments of the hospital which are procurement, finance, account, audit, and administrative departments respectively.
Members of ACTU FMCY are MLS. Zebedee Loveday Udu as Chairman, Barr. Okonny Ekianinima as Secretary, Mr. Eric Suoyefa, Mr. Daw G. Omeremu, Mr. Aga Kunemote, Mrs. Comfort Tarila Odou, Mrs. Laura Zikiri, and Mrs Philip-Slaboh Tuboseiyefah.
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