The
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday admitted that lack
of adequate funding of the agency by the President Goodluck Jonathan
Administration was affecting its fight against corruption in the
country.
The Secretary of EFCC, Mr. Emmanuel
Adegboyega, raised the alarm in Abuja while briefing the Senate
Committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption, at a
public hearing on the bill for an Act to establish the Nigerian
Financial Intelligence Agency.
This came as a confirmation of The PUNCH’s
October 16, 2013 story, which revealed that the EFCC was so broke that
it could not pay its lawyers and meet its other obligations.
Adegboyega told the Senate panel led by
Senator Victor Lar that despite several appeals for fund, “the
commission have been further starved of funds to finance its
operations.”
He lamented that the EFCC was currently broke with only less than N2m in its account.
He said, “I could recollect when the
committee paid us (EFCC) an oversight visit and I did make our financial
position known to the committee. As at now, EFCC does not have N2m in
its account. We don’t have money.
“We (EFCC) have been complaining that no
money has been released to us for operations. As at now, we don’t have
up to N2m. If we can afford to pay salary this month, that is all. That
is the position under which we operate.”
Adegboyega, however, kicked against the creation of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Agency.
He said the NFIA should remain a “secret” agency under an existing anti-corruption agency.
The EFCC secretary also faulted the “regulatory” powers granted the proposed NFIA.
Adegboyega said, “The Financial
Intelligence Agency if independent with enabling laws, will be exploited
by corrupt persons to open a floodgate of injunctions, restraining
orders and other litigation to stall anti-corruption trials. The bill is
unnecessary and we should jettison it.”
However, the Central Bank of Nigeria
supported the establishment of the NFIA but requested that section 6(g)
of the proposed bill should be deleted.
The Director, Legal Services of CBN, Mr.
Amusa Ogundana, who said this when canvassing the position of the apex
bank on the proposed establishment of the NFIA, said section 6 (g) was
on the “supervisory” function provided for in the proposed bill.
He said the section was a breach of the Money Laundering Act.
Meanwhile, other stakeholders, like the
Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission; the
National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other related
Matters; the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and the National
Intelligence Agency, supported the creation of the NFIA.
It will be recalled that members of the
Senate had last Thursday expressed divided opinions on the bill which
sought to create a centre for the purpose of independently conducting
intelligence investigations into financial crimes in the country.
The bill proposes the establishment of
the financial intelligence agency as the central body in Nigeria
responsible for receiving, requesting, analysing and disseminating
financial intelligence reports and other information to the law
enforcement, security and intelligence agencies.
It was presented separately as an
executive and a private member bill by the duo of the Senate Leader,
Victor Ndoma -Egba and Senator Victor Lar.
The separate
presentations were however harmonised because they both sought to
achieve similar objectives, which was enhancing financial intelligence
in the country.
PUNCH
No comments:
Post a Comment