ANEEJ CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST ON PLATFORM DESIGN
Background
The Africa Network for Environment & Economic Justice (ANEEJ) under DFID grant – Monitoring Asset Recovery in Nigeria through Transparency & Accountability – is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the design of CSOs monitoring website that will be used for the reporting of how Cash Transfer (CT) of the Abacha loot is evenly distributed among enlisted beneficiaries.
Corruption remains a perennial challenge to development in Nigeria. Despite its wealth of massive crude oil deposits and other resources, the country continues to experience widespread poverty and underdevelopment. According to the UN and the AU, around $148 billion is stolen from Africa annually by political leaders, multinational corporations, the business elite and civil servants with complicity of banking and property industries in Europe, North America and elsewhere who facilitate the laundering of such funds through complex financial transactions and mechanisms. Estimates indicate that Nigeria lost about $40 billion as illicit financial flows between 2001 and 2010 alone. Transparency International (TI), recently ranked Nigeria 148th out of 180 countries ranked in its 2017 Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The country, according to the CPI, scored 28 out of 100, a figure lower than the average in the Sub-Saharan region.
Hence, despite concerted efforts to address corruption at the national level through prosecution and related measures, the prospect of such anticorruption efforts being translated into tangible benefits for citizens depends largely on the ability of the country to track, trace, repatriate and utilise looted assets for developmental purposes. The Federal Government of Nigeria, working with the international community, has demonstrated obvious commitment and determination to doing this through the measures provided by the provisions of UNCAC, the commitments made at the London Anticorruption Summit in 2016, the Global Forum on Asset Recovery in 2017 and other mechanisms
Progress has been made in this regard. The Switzerland Government has, per an MoU signed by the Nigeria Government with Swiss Banks and the World Bank, recently returned $321 million to Nigeria as part of the over $4 billion stolen by late dictator, General Sani Abacha, which the Federal Government has committed to use in financing social welfare programmes. The United Kingdom has also agreed to return the $73 million from the Malabu oil deal whilst the United States is also in the process of returning $900,000 stashed in that country by the former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepriye Alamieyeseigha.
Despite these encouraging developments, the recovery and management of recovered assets for the benefit of the poor citizens of Nigeria who are the ultimate victims of corruption is beset by many problems, including:
- The lack of a clear policy framework for the management of looted assets recovered
- The re-looting of recovered assets by corrupt public officials
- Low public awareness and advocacy on the recovery and use of looted assets
The MANTRA project is designed to address these problems within the broader objectives of the Anti-Corruption in Nigeria (ACORN) programme of the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) to strengthen the anticorruption regime in Nigeria.
The project is created to achieve the goal of strengthening the capacity of CSOs and citizens to monitor the use of repatriated loot, embark on advocacy to improve the policy, legislative and institutional framework for the recovery and management of looted assets in Nigeria and mobilize collective action in demanding a cleaner society.
Part of the focus and vision of the Open Government Partnership is the use of technology to track and fight corruption. Therefore the Monitoring of Recovered Assets in Nigeria through Transparency and Accountability – MANTRA project needs a technological tool (website) to track, monitor and report how the Abacha returned loot is spent among beneficiaries. To this end, ANEEJ, seeks the service of a renowned web development firm having experience in website design using different platforms.
Companies or organizations should indicate their interest in submitting a proposal for the anticipated subcontract by sending an email indicating their intention to ANEEJ’s Secretariat at info@aneej.org by 05:00pm on August 20, 2018.
For details, click the links below:
MANTRA_Functional Specification-final