Stop Delaying Documents, Proposals, Dakuku Charges NIMASA Staffs

By DAPO OLAWUNI

Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr Dakuku Peterside has warned staffs of the agency to shun acts of corruption through deliberately delaying stakeholders documents for gratification.

Government agencies in the maritime sector are known for seating on proposals, delaying in signing of documents, even as investigations have shown that staff of some of these agencies deliberately declare documents missing in order to take bribe.

Peterside stated this on Monday while speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the 2019 World Anti corruption Day organized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)

Represented by the Director of Internal Audit, Victor Nwazurike, Peterside reiterated that NIMASA has zero tolerance for corruption, charging all departments to do due diligence to proposals in a  timely manner and release them to the owners.

Speaking he said “NIMASA has zero tolerance for corruption, if you do your work very well, you don’t need all these big grammar, if a paper comes to you, treat it immediately, you meet a customer, attend to them very well, don’t look for money or any special favour, by so doing, you have already started the fight against corruption”

“But by the time you hold on to peoples documents and you are looking for ways to delay, you are already promoting corruption”

“In NIMASA, we have an anti corruption unit that is very active, it is headed by the legal adviser of the agency, if you have any complaints on any corrupt practices, just make a report to that unit and they will take it up”

“Apart from this, the SERVICOM unit is also there to ensure that things are properly done in a timely manner, if things are done in a timely manner, corruption would be reduced to the  barest minimum”

He revealed that the Head of legal unit at NIMASA is Barrister Aisha Jida while SERVICOM unit is headed by Gbenga Ogubsakin.

Peterside stated further that “If we do things timely, corruption would be off, but by the time you start holding on to people’s documents and you are delaying, you are already promoting corruption”

“Missing documents is all over at NIMASA, if you have any case, just make a report, we at internal audit is not the first time we are hearing it, we try as much as possible to trace the document”

“We sympathise with people, somebody has submitted a document, something that should be done within one week, but three months the document is still not released, we are sad about this” he said