Sagay reveals when whistle-blower won’t be given 5% of recovered loot

The chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, Prof. Itse Sagay on Friday stated that a whistleblower can get as low as one per cent commission if the recovered loot “is an extremely large amount.”

This is lower than the 2.5 per cent stipulated by the whistleblower policy, which was introduced in 2016 to help in the fight against corruption.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun had last month revealed that approximately N9.12 billion has been recovered from its whistle blowing policy since it came into effect, giving a breakdown of the recoveries as N7.8 billion, $368 million, and £27,800.

But speaking at an evaluation workshop organised by PACAC regarding the Whistleblower policy, Sagay stated that the reward given to a whistleblower could be lower than what the policy specifies.

According to him, “Nigerians should be aware that not every whistleblower is entitled to five percent.

“One controversial issue in the whistleblowing policy is the question is remuneration. The public seems to be fixated on the five percent which is the maximum. It can be as little as one percent.

“If it is an extremely large amount, the whistleblower cannot receive up to five percent, for instance the $43m recovered in Ikoyi. It can be as low as one percent.”

On whether the federal government has any incentive for whistleblowers in cases not involving funds, the PACAC chairman said:

“I think a fund will be created for that; a separate fund. So that those who give information on such practices will get a reward.”

He added: “As we know, a lot of whistleblowers exposed quite a number of looters. There have been others which have not received the same publicity as that of Ikoyi.

“But since then, definitely there has been a slight reduction in the frequency of whistleblowing. We want to use this dialogue to assure potential whistleblowers that not only will they get their remuneration but they are also going to be protected.”