Nigeria’s Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes has faulted the policy directive which mandated the EFCC to transfer all forfeited assets of crimes to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation for management.
Senator Abba Moro who raised the issue during the budget defence of anti-graft agencies noted that it was wrong for the office of the Attorney General to be in procession of the forfeited assets of crimes.
He said the assets needed to be disposed off for government to raise money to finance the budget.
The Chairman of the EFCC who was represented by the Director of Finance, Gamma Joda Mohammed had told the committee that the EFCC acted in line with the policy directive issued since 2019 that all final forfeited assets should be transferred to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation for proper management.
According to the Chairman of the Committee on Anti- Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Sulaiman Kwari, the EFCC Bill on Asset Management currently before the National Assembly is aimed at addressing the abnormal in the management of the final forfeited assets from crimes.
He also raised concern about the poor funding of the EFCC saying that the Federal Government should not pay lip service to the fight against corruption in the country through poor funding of the Agency.
The Director of Finance of the Commission while defending the 2022 budget proposal said the total fund proposed for the agency in 2022 is N31. 3 billion of which N25.8 billion is earmarked for personnel cost, N3.6 billion for overhead while the sum of N1.8 billion is for capital expenditure.
The Senate committee, therefore, pledged to jack up the Commission’s budget to enable it to execute its core mandate.
Another anti-graft agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) led by its Chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN) also defended the Commission’s budget before the committee on Monday.
Prof. Owasanoye said the total budget proposed for ICPC in 2022 is N12.9 billion of which N9.8 billion is for personnel cost, N1.8 billion while only N1.3 billion is for capital expenditure.
Also appearing before the committee is Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) headed by Mr Tukur Modibo who complained bitterly about the N350 million capital fund allocated to his agency in the 2022 budget.
Mr Modibo who appealed to the Senate for an upward review of the allocation to enable the agency to carry out its mandate without any hindrance told the committee that the N4 billion was proposed for personnel while N1 billion is for overhead.
Thereafter, the chairman of the committee noted that “Some agencies are too important to be limited to the envelope system if they must perform their mandates to the fullest”.
He, therefore, pledged that the committee will table the grievances of the anti-graft agencies to the leadership of the Senate for prompt action.
PIAK
