Public officers who are in the habit of taking double Duty Tour Allowance should desist from doing so or else they risk five years jail term without option of fine, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission has said.
Specifically, the ICPC said officers attending meetings or during monitoring duties or oversight functions involving other government/corporate organisations should take this into cognisance.
Such abuse is punishable under Section 19 of the ICPC Act 2000.
The act stipulates: “Any public officer who uses his office or position to gratify or confer any corrupt or unfair advantage upon himself or associate of the public officer or any public officer shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for five years without option of fine.”
The ICPC in an advisory statement said it was giving the warning after it secured conviction at the High Court of Justice, Gusau of five years without option of fine against the Acting Provost Of the College of Education (Technical), Gusau, Zamfara State, Dr. Bello Shallah Ahmed, for financial impropriety involving double take of Duty Tour Allowance.
Ahmed was accused of collecting double DTA from the college for an official trip to attend a Board meeting of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, while he equally collected equal amount of duty tour allowance from JAMB, both totaling N385,000.
The ICPC stated in the eight count charge against Ahmed: “That you Bello Muhammad Shallah (m) sometime between the 13th and 16th of November 2006 or there about at the Federal College Of Education (Technical) Gusau, Zamfara State being a public officer, then serving as the Acting Provost of the said institute used your position as the Acting Provost to confer unfair advantage upon yourself by collecting the sum of N75,000 as DTA, fueling, servicing and others for an official trip to Abuja to attend JAMB Board Meeting from the said Federal College Of Education, Gusau while at the same period and for the same purpose you collected the sum of N90,000 Air ticket and sitting allowance(as a JAMB Board Member) from the JAMB and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section19 of the ICPC Act, 2000.
In his judgement on October 13, 2014, Justice A. Amaize said he was not swayed by the plea of Allocutus as the accused lacked integrity.
Amaize gave him the maximum sentence of five years without option of fine.