The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede has attributed the menace of corruption and poverty in the country to non-compliance with laws.
Olukoyede disclosed this during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Commission and the executives of Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) at the anti-graft’s corporate headquarters in Jabi, Abuja on Friday.
The FRC team was led by the Chairman, Victor Chinemerem Muruako.
He disclosed that Nigeria has moved forward in the fight against corruption, however, pointing out that a major obstacle affecting it was the general aversion for compliance with rules and regulations.
“One of our major challenges is compliance with laws. If our institutions, our agencies and Nigerians are made to comply with our laws, even if at a rate of 70 to 80% compliance with laws, Nigeria will not be where it is today because the resources are there.
“I can tell you this by the work I do and what I see every day. I know this country is blessed. We don’t have any business with poverty, only because people don’t take laws seriously. We don’t take enforcement seriously. They don’t take compliance seriously. That’s why we are where we are.”
Olukoyede expressed joy that the MoU between EFCC and FRC will help in the area of joint investigation teams, which he observed could draw FRC to the forefront of the anti-corruption fight.
“We can set up a joint investigation team and both agencies will be at the forefront of the fight which is for me, very key.”
The enhanced cooperation, he observed, would ensure better cleansing of the contract and procurement processes of the MDAs, their budgets as well as their better compliance to laws.
“I welcome this collaboration, I welcome this synergy and I believe Nigeria and the general public will benefit from it. We want to see our budgetary processes tidied up. We want to see our procurement and contract processes tidied up as well and compliance with the laws,” he said.
Olukoyede further noted that a visible collaboration of the EFCC and FRC will send the signal across to the public that it’s no longer business as usual and pointed to the need to put the MoU into function.
According to him, “By signing this MOU we will be having access to your reports. If the two of us work together, we will be able to sanitize this system to a reasonable extent. It’s not just for us to sign an MoU, it’s important for us to operationalize it.”
While urging the FRC to rise to the occasion in seeing through the budget implementation of MDAs as a regulator, he noted that 80% of the country’s public corruption could be avoided if the sanctity of procurement and contract processes is ensured.
The EFCC boss noted that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was able to delist Nigeria from its Grey list as a result of hard work of anti-corruption agencies in the area of enhanced money laundering and terrorist financing monitoring, noting that the agencies are prepared to do much more.
Muruako in his own remarks also expressed delight and optimism with the MoU and praised Olukoyede and the EFCC for superlative performance in the fight against corruption, economic and financial crimes.
“I commend you. I also commend your team for working hard. I’m very proud of your agency. I feel fulfilled that eventually this MoU is being signed today. And I want to assure you on behalf of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission that it will be a lot of encouragement to our commission. It will help us know that we are really working with you one-on-one. It is not just the FRC that would be enriched, this hydra-headed element called corruption would cut off,” he said.
