EFCC recovers 0m from debtors –AG

Over $700 million (about N105 billion) has so far been recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from bank debtors in the country just as the Federal Government has updated banking and financial regulatory laws and processes in its bid to further tackle corruption in the country.

According to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Michael Aondoakaa, who disclosed this in Doha, Qatar, at the opening of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), the recent sanitization in the banking sector is indicative of the Federal Government’s commitment to strengthening accountability and transparency processes.

He told his audience that “at present, several bank Chief Executives and Directors have been arraigned for flagrant disregard of the laws and regulatory procedures by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). So far, over US$700 million has been recovered from persons who benefited from fraudulent loans and credits.”

Aondoakaa lamented that Nigeria had suffered immensely from the damaging effects of corruption, adding that the country had lost billions of dollars, stolen and expatriated by corrupt leaders and their foreign accomplices including multinational companies.
“It is, therefore, clear to any objective mind that corruption and disregard for the rule of law have overtime constituted the greatest impediments to Nigeria’s development,” he noted.

He added, however, that it was gratifying to note that since the return to democratic governance in 1999, considerable efforts have been made to combat corruption both locally and at the global level, by cooperating with other State Parties on diverse anti-corruption issues.
In his keynote address to the UNCAC, Aondoakaa disclosed that Nigeria had put in place a robust asset declaration regime and conflict of interest rules for Public Officers embedded in the mandate and activities of the Code of Conduct Bureau.

“Our Public Procurement policy and activities aimed at sanitizing and regulating Public Procurement has been consolidated through the enactment of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and establishment of the Bureau for Public Procurement. In the last 28 months alone, the Bureau saved the government over $590, 000,000.00 (five hundred and ninety million United States dollars) from inflated contracts.”
According to him, Nigeria’s effort to implement anti-corruption agenda and this Convention has not been without challenges.
“Our Federal System of Governance has necessitated a limited control of the agenda at the sub-national level while our constitution gives significant autonomy to the federating states on some issues covered by the Convention such as Public procurement and fiscal responsibility on financial and budgetary matters.


While we have substantially closed the gaps on these issues through legislation and establishment of relevant institutional frameworks at the federal level, a lot remains to be done at the level of the federating states that jointly control more than 50 percent of the national budget.”
The AGF expressed the appreciation of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the development partners, the European Union, the UNDP, UNODC, DFID and others for their capacity building inputs and technical assistance to the anti-corruption agencies.

Source:The Sun ,10,11,2009

Good work,But the question is Where is the money.
Where is the money recovered from Abacha,Where is all the Money they have been retrieving?

According to Mr. Babafemi, the funds were recovered from debtors of seven of the eight banks which the country’s central bank said had been on the verge of collapse were it not for its recent intervention.

The banks include: Bank PHB, Afribank, Union Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic, Spring Bank and Finbank.

A breakdown of the total amount shows that ₦33.3billion was recovered for Afribank, ₦30.4billion for Union Bank, ₦59.2billion for Intercontinental Bank, ₦35.4billion for Oceanic Bank, ₦571million for Spring Bank, ₦10.7billion for Finbank and ₦1.2billion for Bank PHB.

He also said the commission’s chairperson, Farida Waziri, met with sectional heads , to ascertain the level of achievement and to urge them to be more committed.

The Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi had announced a total of ₦600 billion naira bailout for the banks in “grave situation”.

The central bank had initially put the total loan portfolio of the ailing banks at ₦2.8 trillion but EFCC spokesperson said reconciliation had shown that the figure was just over ₦700 billion as some of the figures declared by the banks had turned out not to be loans.