Declaration of assets by public officers: when breach of duty to declare assets is a technical offence in Nigeria

Abstract

The Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act 1991 established the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Code of Conduct Tribunal, primarily for the purpose of tracking assets owned by public officers as a mechanism against corrupt enrichment. Section 15 of the Act mandates public officers to declare their assets at various times in the course of employment. Though the Act criminalises failure to declare assets, the proviso to section 3 thereof however restrains the Bureau from referring cases of non-compliance to the Tribunal if a public officer admits his breach in writing. This makes such infraction a mere technical offence for which no blame can be ascribed to an ‘offender’ who admits his breach. Therefore, initiating criminal proceedings where the law absolves public officers from liability seems to violate the object of the law. It also undermines the right not to be tried for offences that are unknown to law. To give effect to the object of the Act, this paper proposes that the proper order the Tribunal should make, where cases covered by the proviso to section 3 of the Act are referred to it, is to dismiss the action in limine or strike out same for lack of jurisdiction.