The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr Ola Olukoyode has disclosed that the
anti-graft Commission was closely monitoring the 2025 budget implementation by
Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, towards ensuring that releases made
to them are not stolen.
He made the disclosure on Tuesday, April 29, 2025
while addressing a delegation of the management team of Human and Environmental
Development Agenda, HEDA, led by its Chairman, Olarenwaju Suraju who paid him a
courtesy visit at the Commission’s corporate headquarters.
“We are monitoring the MDAs,
particularly on the implementation
of the budget. If we can even do
50 percent of our capital budget, the country would be
fine. There is no year that we have done up to 25 percent of our
capital budget and releases are being made, but there's no
commensurate development. We are monitoring and tracking every kobo
released. If we can do 50 percent of capital budget implementation, Nigeria
will be fine infrastructure wise. So far, the first quarter has
gone, and we are working to stop budget allocations of
MDAs from being stolen. In sane societies, budget allocations are not
stolen,” he said.
Speaking on the resolve of the Commission, he declared
that, “We will continue to do the right thing, we will continue to
fight the fight within the confines of the rule of law and we will have
impact. Last year was the best year of EFCC so far. The year we
recorded the highest conviction in the 22 years history of EFCC and also the
highest recovery in the history of the Commission. But we are not
relenting, we'll continue.
“I may not promise more recoveries this year because
of the systems and processes that we have put in place. With the
measures that we have put in place, we will no longer wait for
money to be stolen. It is when you allow the system to be porous for
money to be stolen that you'll be chasing recoveries. And like I
have said before, it takes more to recover than to prevent. The
essence of my setting up the department of Fraud Risk
Assessment and Control, FRAC is for us to do more of
prevention. So this year you'll be seeing more of prevention. In the
event that people have less to steal, there will be less for us to
recover. That's one of the areas where we're trying to hone our
skills and build our commitment.”
Olukoyede further used the occasion to throw
light on the motivation of the Commission for its interventions in
the extractive industry. “The issue of environmental crime and corruption is
something that we have also come to identify with because if you look at our
report particularly in the area of collaboration with NEITI, it addresses
so much. It talks about the issue of our commitment to fighting
environmental crime, illegal mining, which is going on everywhere, degradation
of our environment and all of that. These are the direct impacts of
corruption. Quite a number of these miners are not licensed, they
are illegal. They offer no economic benefits to the nation; they
degrade our environment and they go away with our resources. So
we are losing at all ends and we said, this sabotage must stop.
“We are collaborating very strongly
with the Ministry of Solid Minerals. We're also
collaborating with NEITI, which is like the watchdog over the activities in the
extractive industry. So, I want to tell you that every bit of our
efforts have been driven towards making things
better and stimulating the economy,” he said.
He thanked the HEDA team for standing on the side of
anti-corruption over the years. “I want to salute your
courage. It's not everybody that can stick to this fight for
such a long time. I tell you that some of us who are still in
this crusade know what we have passed through. So I want to thank
you for your commitment. I want to thank you for maintaining such a
very compelling relationship. If we are together, if we are working
together, we will defeat them. We have more people out there, waiting for
this kind of collaboration. And that is what the public is waiting to
see. Thank you for maintaining such a very cordial relationship with
us.”
Suraju, who expressed worry over the effects of
corruption, commended the EFCC for its successes in the anti-corruption fight.
“At HEDA Resource Centre, we have a standing principle that EFCC as
far as we are concerned is not just an agency, it is an
ambassador of Nigeria. It has remained the shining light for us as a
country. Those who have the opportunity of traveling out of the country
know that Nigeria has a bad reputation and what the Nigerian
passport represents. But the semblance of sanity or integrity that you can
ascribe to the country outside Nigeria is as a result
of the efforts of the EFCC. For this, we at
HEDA Resource Centre want to tap into every opportunity to
continue to project the EFCC,” he said.
He further commended Olukoyede for his exemplary
leadership . “I would want to once again commend the Executive Chairman
for not only bringing to bear some of the values that we share. It is
one thing to try, but performance is not measured with the
activities, but by results. We're very happy to commend the Chairman also
for some of the new interventions in the environmental areas, in
seeing to it that the extractive industry is not just limited to
resource matters alone, but also looking at the connection
of environmental crimes to the issue of corruption and abuse of
office. This is also to the credit of the Chairman of the
Commission. We're more than happy to say a big thank you to
you for blazing that trail. For us at HEDA, it will
be a continuous engagement and collaboration with the EFCC,” he
said.
Comments:
Leave a Reply