Assets of public officials will be made public | Nairalaw

As part of the conditions lifting the suspension of the Nigerian
Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) by the Egmont Group of Financial
Intelligence Units, the assets of all public officials and senior
political office holders will soon be open for public
consumption.

Director of NFIU, Alhaji Modibbo Hamman-Tukur disclosed this
yesterday at a budget defence session with the House of
Representatives committee on financial crimes led by Hon. Kayode
Oladele (APC, Ogun).

Briefing the committee on the activities of the NFIU, the
director said the suspension, which was lifted in September 2018
was based on certain conditions that need to be met by the
country.

He said the Egmont Group would want the NFIU to work closely
with other agencies of government in fighting terrorism, financial
crimes and other related offences.

“With the lifting of the suspension, it is likely that all
assets of all leaders, public officials and political office
holders will be displayed. They want to see us work with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS)
and Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).

“They want us to work closely with the presidency, Code of
Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
They want to see the assets of all public officials displayed
publicly”, he disclosed.

Explaining further, Hamman-Tukur said “we believe that NEITI and
CAC are doing a good job, but it will be good that the beneficiary
owner data base will be domiciled with the CCB, and we will
subscribe; because CCB has assets declarations of all public
officers”

He said after the suspension was lifted, they faced the task of
EU listing, which was targeted at blacklisting Nigeria and stop all
her transactions overseas involving European countries. Adding, he
informed that they were able to block the blacklisting but the EU
listing subjected Nigeria to enhanced due diligence in all
transactions concerning all EU countries on suspicious transactions
through their own agencies within their jurisdiction.

Hamman-Tukur disclosed that the concerns raised by the EU
include terrorism, kidnapping and corruption.

The director noted that the “NFIU being a new body and in line
with its mandate and to ensure information and data backup and
enhance the confidentiality of the information in the NFIU, which
has over time been one of the major concerns of the FATF and EGMONT
Group of FIU’s.

He disclosed that the NFIU had a total budget of N1.185 billion
in 2018 made up of N385.310 million as personnel cost, N600 million
as overhead while N200 million was for capital cost. According to
him, the capital release to date stands at N174.946 million out of
the budgeted amount of N200.1 million, adding that utilization
percentage stands at about 12 percent while the balance stands at
N154.936 million.

On the 2019 budget, the director revealed that a total of N8.244
billion has been proposed, which is made up of N1.154 billion for
overhead cost, N4.124 billion as capital cost while N2.865 billion
is for personnel cost

He explained that despite the fact the government has financial
constraints due to dwindling revenue; the NFIU needs to carry out
its role of monitoring financial institutions for compliance as
empowered by the NFIU act of 2018.

Also, defending his budget with the committee, chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu
disclosed that the sum of N251 billion cash and multi-million
dollar worth of jewelries were recovered by the commission between
January 2018 and first quarter of 2019.

He said this include: N11.5 bn final forfeiture (cash and
accounts); N133.8 bn non-forfeiture recoveries; N8.92 billion
direct deposits; N38.64 bn tax recoveries; N4.30 bn fuel subsidy
recoveries and N42 bn banks (third party)”, saying this is in
addition to recoveries of assets as jewelries (gold), various sums
in other currencies and cash for major government agencies
including NNPC, FIRS and AMCON.

“In the first quarter 2019 financial year, the Commission made
recoveries which included: Cash – N140.7 million; Direct Depot sits
– N2.02 billion; Tax recoveries – N7.20 billion; Subsidy recoveries
– N3.06 billion and $292 million,” Magu explained.

On 2019 budget, Magu said the commission requires total sum of
N22.071 billion in 2019 against the sum of N26.396 billion approved
in 2018.

He however observed that the capital expenditure of N15.196
billion was reduced to N3.978 billion in the executive summary
submitted by the Executive to the Legislature.

According to him, the sum of N2.02 billion is for payment of
outstanding liabilities to Julius Berger arising from certificate
Nos. 28, 29 and 30; N1.5 billion cost over runs on new head office
complex; N.299 billion for liabilities for consultancy (New head
office); N.47 billion for purchase of security equipment
(ammunitions) and N1.1 billion for furnishing of the new head
office, among others.

Magu also disclosed plans to increase salaries and allowances of
970 additional staff approved for recruitment, who are to be fully
enrolled on the personnel cost platform in 2019. This comprises 332
Assistant Detective Superintendents, 293 Assistant Detective
Inspectors currently undergoing training at NDA Kaduna and support
staff that recently joined the services of the Commission.

In his welcome remarks, Oladele who reiterated the committee’s
support for the sustenance of the war against corruption by the
Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and transformation of EFCC into
world-class anti-graft institution observed that the issue of
paucity of funds has become a thing of the past.

He also applauded the synergy between the Executive and
Legislature towards the completion of the 10 storey office building
constructed for the commission, which he observed was abandoned by
the Goodluck Jonathan administration.