FEC approves new anti-corruption agency

Post created on 9:05 am

The Federal Executive Council has approved a new anti-corruption agency. The agency named “Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency” will be responsible of coordinating the nation’s recovered looted assets.

The minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, disclosed this after the FEC meeting on Wednesday. He stated that the agency was necessary at this time as proceeds from crime are scattered and in the hands of different agencies. He said

“What happens before now is the proceeds of crime are scattered all over, and mostly in the hands of different and multiple agencies of government inclusive of the police, the DSS (Department of State Service), EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), and ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission).

“So, with that kind of arrangement which is ad-hoc, there is no agency of government that is saddled with the responsibility of data generation, an agency that can give you off-hand the number of landed assets, number of immovable assets, the amount in cash that are recovered by the federal government by way of interim forfeiture overweigh of a final forfeiture.

“So, it is indeed over time a kind of arrangement that is not uniform and consistent.

“If you have a budget item for recovered assets, this agency will now be in a position to provide information to the federal ministry of finance, budget and National Planning on-demand as to what amount is there available for budget purposes, thereby establishing the desired transparency, the desired accountability which has not been available before now,”