The
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Monday, accused
the Executive arm of government in Nigeria of paying lip service to the fight
against corruption, even as he decried what he termed “the culture of undue
secrecy surrounding the operation of government” in the country.
Tambuwal,
who was the guest speaker at the 2013 International anti-corruption day
organized by the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Abuja, also alleged that the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, was very corrupt, saying the anti-graft body never
accounted for huge sums of money it received from donor agencies.
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“Let
us start with the anti-corruption agencies themselves. I am happy that EFCC is
here because they are also corrupt. Let
us start by asking them what happens to grants they receive from donor agencies
which are neither budgeted nor accounted for? That is corruption.
-“This
is why we have asked the House Committee of EFCC to look into some of these
issues and report to the House.
“EFCC
said it has started implementing the report on probe of the fuel subsidy
regime. Let me say it here today that what EFCC said it is implementing is not
the House report which exposed the enormous fraud in the system, but the one by
Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. We have done our job, go and do yours.
“What
has happened to all the exposed corruption cases? The Pension scam, recent and
obvious fraud in the Aviation sector, that of the Security and Exchange
Commission, SEC, where trillions of Naira from private investors were suspected
to have been mismanaged. When we
commenced investigation into the matter, what became of paramount importance to
the EFCC was allegation that one of our members collected money as estacode to
travel but failed to do so.
“Our
members were immediately rushed to court for prosecution, meanwhile, the top
government officer that was found culpable in the main fraud for which the
National Assembly called for public hearing, nothing has happened to her till
date.
“I
cannot hear or read anywhere that she was invited by the EFCC or that any
member of SEC was even invited. We at the National Assembly, for the sake of
probity and accountability, agreed that budgetary allocation to the Commission
should be suspended, only for us to hear that the Executive found a leeway of
funding the agency. We are currently investigating that.
“Coming
to what happened in the Aviation industry recently, do we need an angel to
report to EFCC that something happened there? No we don’t! We all belong to this country so people
should stop taking us for granted,” he added.
Aside
calling on the Presidency to eschew the habit of constituting committees to
probe manifest acts of corruption involving highly placed public officers, the Speaker, noted that the
Federal Executive Council, FEC, “which is not even known to the law, should not
be used as a forum for approving and clearing contracts.”
He
said: “When I raised this issue earlier, some people started attacking my
personality, accusing me of confronting the office of the President. However, I still maintain that the provision
of the law which requires the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, to set up a
council should be respected. The process
of award or review of contracts should not be a one man affair. We know that Mr
Eze cannot do it alone.
“On
our part, we have the desire to support the anti-corruption agencies in terms
of funding, but then, our friends from the other side of government always feel
that immediately they bring their budget we should quickly rubber stamp it for
them to go. Yet they do not implement the budget even when it is passed. They
have not even met up to 40/59% implementation till this December.
“Fight
against corruption should be personalized by every Nigerian. All of us,
individually and collectively have a role to play. It is my opinion that it is
indeed needless for the Executive to constitute probe committees to look into
allegations of corruption, especially in the public sector.
Source: Vanguard
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