Abuja - The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Tuesday that corruption persisted in the country because Nigeria lacked the institutions, systems and processes to prevent it.
Okonjo-Iweala made this known when she spoke on the Topic: 'Preventing Leakages in the Nigerian Economy' at the Catholic Caritas Foundation Forum in Abuja.
According to her, the absence of the relevant systems and institutions that will help check corruption has created opportunities for people to engage in the act.
"This thing has been with us and we must crack it. This is not something that started in this country today; but it is something that we must crack.
"The cause of the disease is we don’t have in place the institutions, the systems and the processes to block and prevent it in the first place.
The minister assured that people would be compelled to do the right thing always if the appropriate systems were in place to block and prevent corruption.
She urged youths in the country to ask the relevant questions that would help tackle corruption in the country.
Okonjo-Iweala said that the introduction of the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMS) had helped to reduce physical movement of cash to make payments and curb corruption.
She said that the Integrated Personnel Payment System had also helped government to remove ghost workers from the system and save money in the process.
Commenting on the outcome of the forensic Audit on the alleged 20 billion dollars missing oil money, she said the ministry had written to the NNPC asking it to remit the amount as directed by the auditors.
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