BPSR Gives Reasons Why Civil Servants Are Prone To Corruption

AS Nigerians from all walks of life continue to seek solutions to wide spread corruption in the nation’s polity, the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), is of the view that corruption especially, in the Federal Civil Service will reduce drastically if arrangements are made for workers to own their houses at retirement.

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr. Joe Abah said that in recognition of the low income of civil servants, government should give more resources to the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board to enable them support civil servants to own their homes.

”The fear of civil servants retiring without owning a house is a major driver of corruption in the civil service in particular,” he said.

Abah made the plea yesterday in his address at the BPSR Lunch Time Reform Seminar on the ”Opportunities for Civil Servants to own Homes” held in Abuja.

Represented by the Director, Reform Coordination of the Bureau, Mr. Yamusa Biu, the DG said that the monetisation policy of government should equally be amended to provide staff quarters to workers on essential services such as t medical doctors, nurses, ambulances and fire service personnel.

”Additionally, the fact that civil servants contribute to the National Housing Fund but do not enjoy the benefits and do not get their money when they retire from service is a major source of concern, the contributions of civil servants should be treated as savings and refunded to them if they had not benefited from the NHF scheme on retirement.”

In her paper presentation on the topic, the Executive Secretary, Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board, Dr. Hannatu Adamu Fika said that in pursuit to its mandate, the board has granted advances to well over 20,000 Federal Government employees to enable public servants purchase houses and parcels of land, build and renovate such houses in Nigeria.

Fika also stated that the board has been able to liquidate the mortgage loans given to 1,206 officers since 2005 when the sales of Federal Government non-essential houses started.