EFCC is broke’

‘EFCC is broke’
on december 16, 2013 at 9:21 pm in news
BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & JOSEPH ERUNKE
ABUJA— THE Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, is broke, cannot pay salaries of
staff and services of prosecutors to carry out
operational functions, its Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel
Aremu, has said.
Aremu disclosed this Monday, at a public hearing on
A Bill for An Act to Establish the Nigeria Financial
Intelligence Agency, NFIA, 2013, organised by the
Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and
Economic Crimes.
He said the financial challenges facing the activities
of the anti–graft agency was as a result of what he
called non-remittance of appropria-ted funds for
the agency by the Federal Government over the
months.
The EFCC Secretary said: “I could recollect when
the committee paid us an oversight function visit.
“We did make our financial position known to the
committee that EFCC does not have N2 million in its
accounts.
“We have been complaining that no money has been
released for us for operations.
“If we can afford to pay salary this month, that is
all. That is the position under which we operate
presently.”
He opposed the intention of the Bill in making
Financial Intelligence Unit, FIU, currently a
department in EFCC, an independent Intelligence
Unit on its own, insisting that “FIU, in most climes of
the world, is run as a secret operational centre at
the background of a major body like EFCC as it is
presently in Nigeria.
”FIU as intended by the Bill should not be expo-sed
to the public as a separate body on its own.
“It should be kept at the background as it is in most
climes of the world.”
However, the Central Bank of Nigeria, National
Intelligence Agency and National Agency for
Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, all rose in
support of the proposed bill.