Thursday, 17 September 2020 05:49

FG proposes law for establishment of new anti-corruption agency

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Federal Executive Council has  approved a bill that seeks to, among other things, create an agency that will have responsibility of managing proceeds of crimes in Nigeria.

With Wednesday’s approval of the bill titled ‘Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency Bill,’ Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami was directed to transmit same to National Assembly for passage into law.

Malami disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly meeting of the council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Buhari presided over the virtual meeting from the Council Chamber of Presidential Villa, Abuja with some ministers in attendance while others participated from their offices.

According to the minister of justice, the current situation in the country is that proceeds of crime are currently with multiple government agencies.

He said after the passage of the bill and the creation of the agency, the organisation  would be solely responsible for   managing the proceeds of crimes in Nigeria.

He said, “The bill is targeted and intended to have in place legal and institutional framework. The legal componence of it is having a law while the institutional component of it is to have an agency that will be saddled with the responsibility of managing assets that constitute proceeds of crime in Nigeria.

“What happens before now is that proceeds of crime are scattered all over, and mostly in the hands of different and multiple agencies of government including police, DSS, EFCC and ICPC.

“So, with that kind of arrangement which is ad hoc, there is no agency of government saddled with the responsibility of data generation, an agency that can give you offhand the number of landed assets, immovable assets, the amount in cash recovered by Federal Government by way of interim forfeiture or final forfeiture. So, it is indeed over time a kind of arrangement that is not uniform and consistent.

“It is a next level of transparency and accountability that we will have in place an agency of government that is exclusively responsible for proceeds of crime.

“It will be a one-stop shop arrangement by which all the assets recovered arising from crime that are indeed vested in the Federal Government, you have a one-stop arrangement where you can have an information.”

Malami added that once there is a budget line for recovered assets directed by the President, the agency to be created would be in a position to provide information to Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on demand concerning what amount is available for budget purposes, thereby establishing the desired transparency which has not been available before now.

When asked if the bill has to do with the recent experience with EFCC, the minister said there were failed attempts to present the bill to FEC in 2007, 2011 and 2019.

“So, to now tie it to a particular institution or particular development of 2020, I think is unfounded taking into consideration the historical antecedents relating to the bill,” he said.

 

Punch


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