EFCC CLOSELY MONITORING MDAs ON BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION - OLUKOYEDE

The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr Ola Olukoyode, says the anti-graft Commission is closely monitoring the 2025 budget implementation by Ministries, Departments and Agencies to ensure that funds released to them are not diverted or stole. Olukoyede made this known while addressing a delegation of the management team of Human and Environmental Development Agenda, HEDA, led by its Chairman, Olarenwaju Suraju, who paid him a courtesy visit at the EFCC corporate headquarters in Abuja. “We are monitoring the MDAs, particularly on the implementation of the budget. If we can even do 50 percent of our capital budget, the country would be fine. There is no year that we have done up to 25 percent of our capital budget and releases are being made, but there's no commensurate development. We are monitoring and tracking every kobo released. If we can do 50 percent of capital budget implementation, Nigeria will be fine infrastructure wise. So far, the first quarter has gone, and we are working to stop budget allocations of MDAs from being stolen. In sane societies, budget allocations are not stolen,” he said. Speaking on the resolve of the Commission, he declared that, “We will continue to do the right thing, we will continue to fight the fight within the confines of the rule of law and we will have impact. Last year was the best year of EFCC so far. The year we recorded the highest conviction in the 22 years history of EFCC and also the highest recovery in the history of the Commission. But we are not relenting, we'll continue. “I may not promise more recoveries this year because of the systems and processes that we have put in place. With the measures that we have put in place, we will no longer wait for money to be stolen. It is when you allow the system to be porous for money to be stolen that you'll be chasing recoveries. And like I have said before, it takes more to recover than to prevent. The essence of my setting up the department of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, FRAC is for us to do more of prevention. So this year you'll be seeing more of prevention. In the event that people have less to steal, there will be less for us to recover. That's one of the areas where we're trying to hone our skills and build our commitment.” Olukoyede further used the occasion to throw light on the motivation of the Commission for its interventions in the extractive industry. “The issue of environmental crime and corruption is something that we have also come to identify with because if you look at our report particularly in the area of collaboration with NEITI, it addresses so much. It talks about the issue of our commitment to fighting environmental crime, illegal mining, which is going on everywhere, degradation of our environment and all of that. These are the direct impacts of corruption. Quite a number of these miners are not licensed, they are illegal. They offer no economic benefits to the nation; they degrade our environment and they go away with our resources. So we are losing at all ends and we said, this sabotage must stop. “We are collaborating very strongly with the Ministry of Solid Minerals. We're also collaborating with NEITI, which is like the watchdog over the activities in the extractive industry. So, I want to tell you that every bit of our efforts have been driven towards making things better and stimulating the economy,” he said. He thanked the HEDA team for standing on the side of anti-corruption over the years. “I want to salute your courage. It's not everybody that can stick to this fight for such a long time. I tell you that some of us who are still in this crusade know what we have passed through. So I want to thank you for your commitment. I want to thank you for maintaining such a very compelling relationship. If we are together, if we are working together, we will defeat them. We have more people out there, waiting for this kind of collaboration. And that is what the public is waiting to see. Thank you for maintaining such a very cordial relationship with us.” Suraju, who expressed worry over the effects of corruption, commended the EFCC for its successes in the anti-corruption fight. “At HEDA Resource Centre, we have a standing principle that EFCC as far as we are concerned is not just an agency, it is an ambassador of Nigeria. It has remained the shining light for us as a country. Those who have the opportunity of traveling out of the country know that Nigeria has a bad reputation and what the Nigerian passport represents. But the semblance of sanity or integrity that you can ascribe to the country outside Nigeria is as a result of the efforts of the EFCC. For this, we at HEDA Resource Centre want to tap into every opportunity to continue to project the EFCC,” he said. He further commended Olukoyede for his exemplary leadership . “I would want to once again commend the Executive Chairman for not only bringing to bear some of the values that we share. It is one thing to try, but performance is not measured with the activities, but by results. We're very happy to commend the Chairman also for some of the new interventions in the environmental areas, in seeing to it that the extractive industry is not just limited to resource matters alone, but also looking at the connection of environmental crimes to the issue of corruption and abuse of office. This is also to the credit of the Chairman of the Commission. We're more than happy to say a big thank you to you for blazing that trail. For us at HEDA, it will be a continuous engagement and collaboration with the EFCC,” he said.