Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal on Monday expressed concern over the spate of corruption in the management of finance of public institutions culminating into loss of billions stolen funds.
To tackle the problem, the speaker assured that the establishment of Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency (NFIA) would help in ending the era of financial impunity in Nigeria.
“Today, billions of naira go missing in this country every year as a result of mismanagement and outright theft of money belonging to the commonwealth”, he lamented.
“We believe that this level of financial impunity is possible because of dubious accounting procedures and the lack of a specialised agency that able to get facts and details of this intricate web of corrupt practices and ensure that the perpetrators are successfully prosecuted.
“We want to move our nation from the prevailing system whereby only a select few is privy to the complex way that money gets moved around in this country and so they could hide under the shadows and perpetrate all kinds of scam”.
Tambuwal, who declared open the public hearing on the bill seeking to establish the NFIA organised by the House Committee on Drugs, Narcotic and Financial Crimes, stressed that when passed into law, the bill would help in rectifying the deficiencies in our financial system, especially the sheer number of loopholes that make it possible for people to perpetrate massive fraud.
Excluding the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which was absent at the public hearing, other stakeholders who expressed support for the passage of the bill include International Association of Criminal Justice Practitioners, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Zero Corruption Network, Public Awareness Network, Media Initiative Against injustice, Educational Watch Centre and Change Movement Nigeria, and Citizens Centre for Integrated Development and Social Rights, amongst others.
“The bill also seeks to institutionalise the application of best practices in Financial Intelligence Management in Nigeria”, he added. “We have all seen the consequences of the reckless and cavalier manner that public officials and civil servants manage public funds”.
In his remarks, Adams Jagaba, chairman of the committee explained that the bill seeks to provide legislation for an institution responsible for generating and dispersing information on money laundering, terrorism financing and other financial crimes.
Jagaba added that the bill further aims to establish an autonomous national agency that will be responsible for the receipt of information from financial institutions and designated financial bodies for analysing and documenting such information for the purpose of converting this information into financial intelligence that could be transmitted to the relevant law enforcement agencies such as, EFCC, ICPC, DSS, ONSA, DMI, NPF, NSCDC, NIS! NCS, NAPTIP and DIA, for the purpose of apprehending crimes within and outside the country.
