NOA, NYSC partner to check corruption

A NEW partnership to promote discipline, ethical values and corruption in the society has been struck between the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

The deal will enable NOA volunteers, including the Community Support Brigade and Citizens Responsibility Volunteers, and NYSC corps members deployed to communities across the country to take measures to promote these virtues as part of the national core values of our country.

NOA Director General, Mike Omeri, who led a team of the agency’s management to a meeting with his NYSC counterpart, Brig.-Gen. Johnson Olawunmi, said it was necessary to harmonise the efforts of the two bodies that have the spread and mandate to promote unity and integration in the crusade for discipline and anti-corruption.

Meanwhile, the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), has held a public procurement monitoring training for corps members to increase their public finance literacy and procurement monitoring in key human development sectors.

According to the ICPC Head, Youth Education and Mobilisation Unit, Mr. Kingsley Obi, “this training is a first of several steps towards increasing citizens’ participation in the actualisation of improved national infrastructure and public services.

“The purpose is to highlight the positive correlation between procurement monitoring and anti-corruption.”

Similarly, the PPDC Procurement Monitoring Programme Coordinator, Mrs. Nkemdilim Ilo, emphasised the importance of the public procurement process to eventual public service delivery as she took the participants through the various stages of the process.

Using real life situations, she explained that the Freedom of Information Act 2011 is a veritable tool for accessing procurement-related information.

According to Omeri, NOA has been working to establish a community-based movement for the purpose of promoting discipline in the society and promoting both the culture and values of the different parts of the country.