The Nigerian Senate has faulted the policy directive which mandated the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to transfer all final forfeited assets of crimes to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation for management, saying such assets need to be disposed off for the government to raise money to finance the budget.
Senator Abba Moro (PDP Benue South) who raised the issue during the budget defence anti-graft agency noted that it was wrong for the office of the Attorney General to be in possession of the forfeited assets of crimes.
The Chairman of the EFCC who was represented by the Director of Finance, Gamma Joda Mohammed had told the committee that the EFCC acted in line with the policy directive issued since 2019 that all final forfeited assets should be transferred to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation for proper management.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti- Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Sulaiman Kwari said the EFCC Bill on Asset Management currently before the National Assembly is aimed at addressing the abnormal in the management of the final forfeited assets from crimes.
The committee also raised concern about the poor funding of the EFCC saying that the Federal Government should not pay lip service to the fight against corruption in the country.
The Director of Finance of the Commission while defending the 2022 budget proposal said the total fund proposed for the agency in 2022 is N31. 3 billion of which N25.8 billion is earmarked for personnel cost, N3.6 billion for overhead while the sum of N 1.8 billion is for capital expenditure.
The Director of Operations of EFCC, Mr. Abdulkarim Chukkol who also spoke on the operation of the Commission, said EFCC only has 15 offices across the federation including the headquarters in Abuja.
The committee, therefore, pledged to jack up the Commission’s budget to enable it to execute its core mandate.