1746523505.JPG)
Budgit has sought enhanced collaboration with the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in the area of federal and
states’ budget implementation monitoring.
The request was made on Friday, May 2, 2025 when
Yahyala Kwaga, Group Head, Research and Policy Advisory, Open Government
Partnership and Institutional Partnership, OGIP led top officials of the
organization on a courtesy visit to EFCC’s Executive Chairman, Mr. Ola
Olukoyede at the Commission’s corporate headquarters.
“We would like to enhance the reporting and escalation
channels for capital projects in particular, because once
there are channels of communication that are clear, that are direct,
that provide anonymity, it would help in reporting and easing the work of your
investigation departments. We would love to see more
collaborations. We want to provide our expertise, our capacity for
evidence-based policy making. We will be supporting legislative
oversight. We know that there's a National Assembly Committee on
anti-corruption agencies. We can collaborate and partner with
you and the National Assembly Committee in building
institutional transparency tools, focusing on multi-stakeholder engagements
and at the same time, strengthening the voices of people in
communities. We believe that the EFCC is poised to collaborate with
us to execute better monitoring of capital projects at both the
federal level and even at the state level because state official that we
collaborate with express concern that there is some level of
mismatch in projects by federal lawmakers in the states, so
there is some work that the EFCC can do in that regard,” he said.
Kwaga harped on the need to formalize the working
relationship between the EFCC and his organization. “We already have a
relationship with the EFCC. We would love to have it formalized at some
point in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding. That would provide
some details and clarity on expectations, roles and
responsibilities. And it would really be a significant milestone in our
relationship moving forward,” he said.
He identified joint monitoring and mission
exercises, capacity building and training as significant lines
of collaboration with the Commission. Others
are in data and intelligence sharing and public awareness campaigns.
In his response, Olukoyede appreciated the
longstanding collaboration between the Commission and Budgit, stating
that the EFCC will spare nothing in ensuring a
diligent budget implementation monitoring at the federal
and state levels.
“Thank you for your partnership with us over the
years. I have always been part of your engagement because of the importance I
attach to our relationship with you. For all your efforts and
collaboration I want to say thank you, as well as for finding us worthy
of partnership in your efforts. I can assure you that we will engage
you in areas where we need to,” he said.
Speaking on the necessity of capital project
implementation, the EFCC boss stated that. “We have deployed adequate
human resources in ensuring that we deliver on project implementation
monitoring at the federal and state levels. As I have always said, if we
can do 50 percent of our capital projects in a year, the country
would be fine. Capital budget implementation is an area that we need to
look at very seriously, particularly now that there is not
much money available. The little money that is disbursed must be
applied on what it is supposed to and people must have value for
it.”
