Osinbajo expresses concern as survey exposes corruption in regulatory agencies

A survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, PwC, has exposed major pitfalls in the operations of some Federal Government regulatory agencies.

The Cost of Compliance Report was presented to the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council at its first virtual meeting of the year on Tuesday.

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The report revealed persistent corruption, duplicity of functions, poor service orientation, and several anti-business dispositions in some of the regulatory agencies.

As a result, PEBEC resolved that CEOs and heads of some federal government regulatory agencies be presented with the outcome of the recent survey in a renewed attempt at further deepening the reforms of the nation’s business environment.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who presided over the meeting, directed that CEOs and heads of the concerned government regulatory agencies involved should be presented with the outcomes.

Osinbajo, in a statement on Wednesday by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, said interaction should take place regarding some of the worrying disclosures in the report of the survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, PwC.

Osinbajo said the report revealed human issues that were not unavoidable, stressing the important roles regulatory agencies play in ensuring businesses thrive seamlessly without inhibition.

He said doing otherwise would only jeopardize the government’s efforts in creating a conducive business environment.

He said: “If the environment on account of regulatory authorities is so difficult or expensive, such that people are discouraged or it doesn’t make sense for people to do business, then we are shooting ourselves in the foot in a manner we can only blame ourselves. These are human issues and we must do something very serious about these issues.

“I’m in full support of holding our CEOs to account because they, in turn, must hold their staff to account. If there is systemic corruption, bribery and extortion, and nobody is held to account, there is a problem.”