New Telegraph

EFCC’ll help FRC retrieve N1.2trn from MDAs –Bawa

Abdulrasheed Bawa

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has pledged to work with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) in retrieving about N1.2 trillion operating surplus held by the Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

 

Bawa made the pledge when the Chairman of the FRC, Victor Muruako, and his management team paid him a courtesy visit at the EFCC headquarters, Jabi, Abuja during the week.

 

The EFCC chairman, who promised that the anti-graft agency would work with the FRC in blocking budget leakages, said recovery of the said N1.2 trillion would help to shore up revenues for use by the government for public service delivery.

 

The FRC Head of Strategic Communications, Mr. Bede Anyanwu, said in a statement that Bawa was reacting to a disclosure by Muruako.

 

According to the statement, Muruako noted that while the FRC had recorded significant gains in blocking wastages in public finance management, about N1.2 trillion remained in the hands of defaulting MDAs who had applied different means, including smart accounting, to deny payment to the Federal Government Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).

Muruako identified the absence of enforcement powers in the FRC’s enabling law as a major weakness, hampering its efforts in enforcing fiscal transparency among agencies of government, and requested the intervention of the EFCC to enable it achieve its mandate.

 

He said: “Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) recognises that we can hardly achieve our key aim and objective of ensuring the long term stability of the nation’s economy without the assistance of your commission.

“For one, we believe that the credibility of the economic system in Nigeria is a prerequisite for achieving economic stability and this is where EFCC comes in.”

 

Muruako also urged the EFCC to revisit the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two agencies with a view to expanding the frontiers of cooperation and collaboration.

 

He specifically called on the EFCC to assist in the training of the FRC’s personnel to improve their capacity to effectively police the ‘blue chip government agencies’.

 

In his response, Bawa expressed dismay at the antics of some government agencies which consistently undercut government in terms of revenue remittance.

 

The EFCC chairman advised Muruako to ensure that they beam their searchlight on the activities of consultants used by MDAs to siphon government funds

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