The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) has been urged to expand the scope of its whistleblowing policy to include an internal mechanism where staff of the commission at all levels are able to report wrongdoing while ensuring their safety.
This was as the commission revealed that its whistleblowing policy only made provision for receiving tips from external whistleblowers excluding staff of the organization.
Speaking at a sensitization event organized by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), in collaboration with the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), the Coordinator of AFRICMIL, Chido Onumah who was represented by Godwin Onyeacholem, the Senior Program Officer of the not-for-profit organization, commended the Commission for having a whistleblowing policy but said more needed to be done for accurate implementation of the policy within the organization.
“Even as we commend you for having a whistleblowing policy, it is obvious it is not far-reaching enough. Such a policy is not meant to be one-sided, not meant for only the people you regulate”, he said.
Similarly, Maxwell Kadiri, a lawyer and resource person who also commended the commission advised that the existing policy at the commission be repackaged and publicized and to encourage workers confidence in reporting wrongdoings.
In his presentation, Johnson Oludare, Assistant Director at the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), said the purpose of the sensitization/training was to assess how the whistleblowing policy works in PENCOM and what should be done to strengthen it.
He emphasized on the need for employers to have a mechanism for listening to workers, Oludare said government was committed to the success of the whistleblowing policy as a vital tool in the fight against corruption.
Another resource person, Godwin Chigbu, who is also a lawyer, stressed the need for PENCOM to have a whistleblowing policy that every worker knew about and how it can be used for making disclosures.
He said beyond just letting workers know that a whistleblowing policy exists, management should provide regular training at all levels on the effective implementation of whistleblowing arrangement that would help to develop supportive and open culture in PENCOM.
Dr. Farouk Aminu, a commissioner at PENCOM commended AFRICMIL and PICA for the initiative describing it as a laudable policy to be embraced by all staff of the organization.
Bashir Harisu, Director, PICA, who led the PICA delegation, reiterated the importance of the event as a deliberate step towards ensuring the institutionalization of whistleblowing in the country.
This is the third in the series of training/sensitization activity in the MDAs facilitated by AFRICMIL and PICA and supported by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Earlier meetings had been held in Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
