Many see it as a blunder. Others say they are not sincere. For me, I am interested in the facts of the claim that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is broke, as made by its Secretary, Emmanuel Adegboyiga, in December, 2013.
On December 16, 2013, at the Senate Public hearing on the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency Bill in Abuja, Akomaye declared to the entire world that the Commission was broke, adding that it had less than N2 million in its accounts.
Prior to that, the Commission was reported to have had no funds to pay her lawyers, among other claims.
However, a look at the Commission’s funding in 2013 and the status of its finance in the last quarter of the year suggests that the Commission is being economical with the truth. There is also an indication of massive corruption and looting going on in the Commission.
For Personnel Allocations in 2013, the National Assembly appropriated N5,804,294,192.00 for the EFCC. By September, EFCC had already received N4,353,220,641.10 and it is estimated that the outstanding 1,451,073,550.90 had already been received by the Commission as at November 2013.
EFCC has only about 1,246 core officials, who are validly on the pay roll. The Commission has more than 700 police officials who are claiming money from a payroll that is meant for the hiring of staff for EFCC, including ghost workers masquerading as police officers.
Several questions are still yearning for answers. First, why does EFCC need 700 police officials who are earning money from two statutory institutions – the Nigeria Police Force and the EFCC? Why are these police officers appointed Directors, Deputy Directors and Assistant Directors in EFCC while retaining their positions in the police? Why can’t the funds be used to create jobs and hire more than 700 graduates if EFCC really needs that number to perform its tasks? Are the policemen offering any value to EFCC or are they deepening corruption within the ranks of EFCC?
Another area of concern is the corruption in the mismanagement of funds through the funding of the Special Control Unit on Money Laundering. More than 60 personnel of the EFCC were posted to a Department called SCUML under the Ministry of Trade and Investment for more than eight years without any justification and without any approval by the National Assembly. The EFCC is also funding the maintenance of SCUML’s office in Abuja, Enugu, Port Harcourt and Kano. Sections 4 and 5 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011, as amended in 2013 empowers the Ministry to undertake a specific function and this is what led to the establishment of SCUML under the Ministry.This is one of the greatest tragedies of lack of transparency in the management of government resources. Despite several requests from the National Assembly to EFCC to explain the reason why it is funding another Department in another Government’s Agency that is not provided within its budget, the EFCC has failed to provide any tangible response.
The EFCC has also refused to give the National Assembly their payroll and nominal roll register for the past eight years, despite several requests. How can the EFCC claim that it does not have funds when it is funding the Police and the Ministry of Trade and Investment without any budgetary allocation?
A look at the overhead allocation says it all. The National Assembly approved N1,410,960,830.00 as overhead for EFCC in 2013. As at September 2013, N1,058,220,621.00 had been released to the EFCC, which is more than 75 per cent of what was allocated to other agencies.
Also, international Donor Funding to the Commission are not accounted for. The EFCC has received so much from international development partners, both in terms of training, cash and equipment. Till date, the Commission has refused to provide detailed breakdown of international support from donors to the National Assembly, following a formal request during an oversight visit in September 2013.
International donors that provided support to EFCC in 2013 included the British-DFID, DFID-Justice for all programme, World Bank Funding (through the Ministry of Finance), the European Union through UNODC (over $30 million allocated to the EFCC from 2006 to 2011) and follow up funding from 2012 to 2015.
GIABA, the ECOWAS group based in Senegal and led by a Nigerian who is also a friend to the Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, claimed to have donated $1 million to the EFCC in 2013 (approximately N160 million). The EFCC only reported $705,575.25 to the National Assembly during their oversight visit, without explaining what the funds were used for.
The governments of Norway, Canada and United States have provided various supports in cash and in kind over the past seven years.
Essentially, the EFCC could have received in kind and cash, more than N5 billion from international development agencies in the past five years while at the same time deducting funds from the national budget. Who is auditing the accounts of EFCC?
The EFCC claims to have trained officials in different areas and in different countries. How many officers of EFCC were trained? How many police officers were trained? How many SCUML officials were trained and how much has EFCC invested in local training to strengthen its internal capacity.
Another worrisome development is the management of the accounts of the Commission. The EFCC Accounts are managed by Bukar Abba from Borno State, while the Internal Auditor, Alhaji Pate, is from Adamawa State. Pate is believed to be Lamorde’s brother. It is obvious that no amount of external auditing can achieve the desired result until the Accountant and the Auditor are removed and replaced by officers duly and transparently appointed to manage EFCC’s finances.
Ultimately, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission stinks and must be sanitised.
First, it is important that the Federal Government, through the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, determines the difference in the funding between the actual number of staff in the EFCC payroll and the amount that is going into other institutions such as the police and the Ministry of Trade and Investment. This should be investigated and the EFCC made to return the funds to the Treasury.
Also, the Minister of Finance should obtain information on funds provided by Donors and the difference in terms of what was budgeted and the actual utilization of these funds.
More so, government should review the way EFCC is managing funds recovered from suspects. This has been a source of major concern to Nigerians and international partners. Funds recovered are kept by EFCC for more than five to six years without reference to the MFA during the pendency of the cases. Investigations revealed that the National Assembly tried severally to obtain the relevant and required information on some of the above issues from the EFCC to no avail.
It is unfortunate that an anti-corruption agency is involved in the funding of activities that are not within its mandate. How can an anti-corruption Agency that cannot account for funds provided by donors and national treasury hold others accountable?
Furthermore, there is the need for a forensic audit through an external auditor to understand the fraud going on in EFCC. There are clear indications that the leadership is more interested in acquiring for personal interest than to fight corruption. The international Organisations that render support the Commission should be requested to provide information on the level of support to the EFCC.
The time to act is now!
Trending
- FG bans use of foreign syringes, needles in tertiary hospitals
- Contempt: Appeal Court grants EFCC’s exparte motion for stay of proceedings, fixes date for hearing
- Court orders arrest of ex-Naval Chief over N1.5 b ‘fraud’ case
- Oyebanji receives Daily Independent’s Governor of the Year Award
- Police arrest 19-year-old for allegedly robbing female students
- Ganduja: Court bars police from arresting APC Ward Officers
- Police raid criminal hideouts, arrest 40 suspects in Lagos
- Tinubu to commission 3 gas infrastructure projects to boost economy prosperity