Privacy Policy

PICA is dedicated to protecting the confidentiality and privacy of information entrusted to it. As part of this fundamental obligation, PICA is committed to the appropriate protection and use of personal information (sometimes referred to as “personal data”, “personally identifiable information” or “PII”) that has been collected online.

Generally, our intent is to collect only the personal information that is provided voluntarily by online visitors so that we can reach back to them on submitted TIPs Please review this privacy statement (“Privacy Statement”) to learn more about how we collect, use, share and protect the personal information that we have obtained.

1. Collection and use of personal information
• 1.1 What information we collect
• 1.2 The legal grounds we have to use your personal information
• 1.3 Automatic collection of personal information
•• 1.3.1 IP addresses
•• 1.3.2 Cookies
•• 1.3.3 GoogleAnalytics
•• 1.3.4 Web beacons
•• 1.3.5 Location-based tools
• 1.4 Social media widgets and applications
• 1.5 Children
2. Sharing and transfer of PERSONAL INFORMATION
3. Choices
4. Access
5. Data security and integrity
6. Links to other sites
7. Changes to this statement
8. Policy questions and enforcement

1. Collection and use of personal information
1.1 What information we collect
We obtain personal information about you if you choose to provide it – for example, to contact mailboxes or to Submit a Tip. In some cases, you will have previously provided your personal information to PICA (if, for example, you have previously submitted a Tip), we will collect any information or content needed for the submission and processing of tips. When you submit personal information to PICA, we will use this information in the manner outlined in this Privacy Statement. Your personal information is not used for other purposes, unless we obtain your permission, or unless otherwise required or permitted by law or professional standards.
1.2 The legal grounds we have to use your personal information
PICA generally collects only the personal information necessary to fulfill your request. Where additional, optional information is sought, you will be notified of this at the point of collection or after.
The law in Nigeria allows us to process personal information, so long as we have a ground under the law to do so. It also requires us to tell you what those grounds are. As a result, when we process your personal information, we will rely on one of the following processing conditions:
Performance of a contract: this is when the processing of your personal information is necessary in order to perform our obligations under a contract;
Legal obligation: this is when we are required to process your personal information in order to comply with a legal obligation, such as keeping records for tax purposes or providing information to a public body or law enforcement agency;
Legitimate interests: we may process information about you where it is in our legitimate interest in running a lawful business Your consent: in some cases, we will ask you for specific permission to process some of your personal information, and we will only process your personal information in this way if you agree to us doing so. You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting PICA at whistle.finance.gov.ng.
Examples of the ‘legitimate interests’ referred to above are:
  1. To offer information and/or services to individuals who visit our website or offer information about actions taken on a Tip.
  2. To prevent fraud or criminal activity and to safeguard our IT systems.
  3. To conduct, and to analyze, our outreach on the Whistleblower initiative of the govt
  4. To meet our corporate and social responsibility obligations.
1.3 Automatic collection of personal information
In some instances, PICA and its service providers use cookies, web beacons and other technologies to automatically collect certain types of information when you visit us online, as well as through emails that we may exchange. The collection of this information allows us to customize your online experience, improve the performance, usability and effectiveness of PICA’s online presence, and to measure the effectiveness of our marketing activities.
1.3.1 IP addresses
An IP address is a number assigned to your computer whenever you access the internet. It allows computers and servers to recognize and communicate with one another. IP addresses from which visitors appear to originate will be recorded for IT security and system diagnostic purposes. This information will also typically be used in aggregate form to conduct web site trend and performance analysis.
1.3.2 Cookies
Cookies will typically be placed on your computer or internet-enabled device whenever you visit us online. This allows the site to remember your computer or device and serve a number of purposes.
On some of our web sites, a notification banner will appear allowing you to manage your consent to collect cookies (cookie banner). Below is a summary of the categories of cookies collected on our websites, and how your consent may impact your experience of certain features as you navigate those websites:
Strictly necessary cookies: Strictly necessary cookies are essential in order to enable users to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. These cookies must be enabled or the site will not function, and cannot be blocked. Performance cookies: Performance cookies are cookies used to gather data to enhance the performance of a website. You can manage your consent for performance cookies using the cookie banner, or by updating your browser’s settings (often found in your browser’s Tools or Preferences menu) to not accept cookies.
Functionality cookies: Functionality cookies are used to remember customer selections that change the way the site behaves or looks. You may opt-out of these cookies, but it will impact your experience on the website, and you may need to repeat certain selections each time you visit.
You can manage your consent for functionality cookies using the cookie banner, or by updating your browser’s settings (often found in your browser’s Tools or Preferences menu) to not accept cookies.
Although most browsers automatically accept cookies, you can choose whether to accept cookies via the cookie consent banner or your browser’s settings (often found in your browser’s Tools or Preferences menu). If you wish to revoke your selection, you may do so by clearing your browser’s cookies, or by updating your preferences in the cookie banner.
Further information about managing cookies can be found in your browser’s help file or through sites such as www.allaboutcookies.org.
Below is a list of the types of cookies used on our web sites:
Purpose Description Type & Expiry Performance (i.e., User's Browser)
Our web sites are built using common internet platforms. These have built-in cookies which help compatibility issues (e.g., to identify your browser type) and improve performance (e.g., quicker loading of content). Session, Deleted upon closing the browser, or persistent.
Security Cookies If you register for access to a restricted area, our cookies ensure that your device is logged for the duration of your visit. You will need your username and password to access the restricted areas.
Session, Deleted upon closing the browser, or persistent.
Site Preferences Our cookies may also remember your site preferences (e.g., language) or seek to enhance your experience (e.g., by personalizing a greeting or content). This will apply to areas where you have registered specifically for access or create an account.
Session, Deleted upon closing the browser, or persistent.
Social Sharing
We use third party social media widgets or buttons to provide you with additional functionality to share content from our web pages to social media web sites and email. Use of these widgets or buttons may place a cookie on your device to make their service easier to use, ensure your interaction is displayed on our web pages (e.g. the social share count cache is updated) and log information about your activities across the Internet and on our web sites. We encourage you to review each provider’s privacy information before using any such service. For further details on our use of social media widgets and applications, see below.
Other third-party tools and widgets will be used on our individual web pages from time to time to provide additional functionality. Depending on how you set your preferences in your browser and/or the cookie banner, use of these tools or widgets may place a cookie on your device to make their service easier to use, and ensure your interaction is displayed on our webpages properly.
Cookies by themselves do not tell us your email address or otherwise identify you personally. In our analytical reports, we will obtain other identifiers including IP addresses, but this is for the purpose of identifying the number of unique visitors to our web sites and geographic origin of visitor trends, and not to identify individual visitors.
1.3.3 Web beacons
A web beacon is a small image file on a web page that can be used to collect certain information from your computer, such as an IP address, the time the content was viewed, a browser type, and the existence of cookies previously set by the same server. PICA only uses web beacons in accordance with applicable laws.
You have the option to render some web beacons unusable by rejecting their associated cookies. The web beacon may still record an anonymous visit from your IP address, but cookie information will not be recorded.
In some of our newsletters and other communications, we will monitor recipient actions such as email open rates through embedded links within the messages. We collect this information to gauge user interest and to enhance future user experiences.
1.4 Social media widgets and applications
PICA whistleblower portal will typically include functionality to enable sharing via third party social media applications, such as the Facebook Like button and Twitter widget. These social media applications will collect and use information regarding your use of KPMG websites (see details on ‘Social Sharing’ cookies above). Any personal information that you provide via such social media applications will often be collected and used by other members of that social media application and such interactions are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide the application. We do not have control over, or responsibility for, those companies or their use of your information.
1.5 Children
PICA understands the importance of protecting children’s privacy, especially in an online environment. In particular, our sites are not intentionally designed for or directed at children under the age of 13. It is our policy never to knowingly collect or maintain information about anyone under the age of 13, except as part of an engagement to provide professional services.
2. Sharing and transfer of personal information
We do not share personal information with third parties, except as necessary for our legitimate professional and business needs, to carry out your requests, and/or as required or permitted by law or professional standards. For more information on such third parties, please see this link. In addition, where necessary, PICA will not transfer the personal information you provide to any third parties for their own direct marketing use.
3. Choices
In general, you are not required to submit any personal information to PICA, but we will require you to provide certain personal information in order for you to receive additional information about your submissions. PICA will also ask for your permission for certain uses of your personal information, and you can agree to or decline those uses. If you opt-in for particular services or communications, such as volunteering to be a witness, you will be able to unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions included in each communication. If you decide to unsubscribe from a service or communication, we will try to remove your information promptly, although we may require additional information before we can process your request.
As described in “Cookies” above, if you wish to prevent cookies from tracking you as you navigate our sites, you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Note, however, that some portions of our sites may not work properly if you elect to refuse cookies.
4. Your rights
If PICA processes personal information about you, you have the following rights:
Access and correction: you have the right to access to that data. This is sometimes called a ‘Subject Access Request’. If we agree that we are obliged to provide personal information to you, we will provide it to you free of charge. Before providing personal information to you, we may ask for proof of identity and sufficient information about your interactions with us that we can locate your personal information. If the information we hold about you is incorrect, you are entitled to ask us to correct any inaccuracies in the personal information.
Object to processing: you have the right to object to us processing your personal information if we are not entitled to use it anymore.
Other Rights: in addition, you may have rights to have your information deleted if we are keeping it too long, have its processing restricted in certain circumstances and/or to obtain copies of information we hold about you in electronic form.
You can make a request or exercise these rights by contacting PICA at whistle@finance.gov.ngand we will make all reasonable and practical efforts to comply with your request, so long as it is consistent with applicable law and professional standards.
5. Data security and integrity
PICA has reasonable security policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorized loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. Despite PICA's best efforts, however, security cannot be absolutely guaranteed against all threats. To the best of our ability, access to your personal information is limited to those who have a need to know. Those individuals who have access to the data are required to maintain the confidentiality of such information.
We also make reasonable efforts to retain personal information only for so long i) as the information is necessary to comply with an individual’s request, ii) as necessary to comply with legal, regulatory, internal business or policy requirements, or iii) until that person asks that the information be deleted. The period for which data is retained will depend on the specific nature and circumstances under which the information was collected; however, subject to the requirements of i)–iii) above, personal information will not be retained for longer than necessary.
6. Changes to this statement
PICA may modify this Privacy Statement from time to time to reflect our current privacy practices. When we make changes to this statement, we will revise the “updated” date at the top of this page. Any changes to the processing of personal data as described in this Privacy Statement affecting you will be communicated to you through an appropriate channel, depending on how we normally communicate with you.
8. Policy questions and enforcement
PICA is committed to protecting the online privacy of your personal information. If you have questions or comments about our administration of your personal information, please contact us at whistle@finance.gov.ng. You may also use this address to communicate any concerns you may have regarding compliance with our Privacy Statement.
In any event, you always have the right to lodge a complaint with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Nigerian regulator in charge of protecting personal information.
1 "PICA," "we," "our," and "us" refers to Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit, a department in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning Nigeria