House of Representatives urges EFCC to recover N72.5b, $1.8m from alleged corrupt MDAs officials

Ask President to sign Audit Commission Bill
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) has charged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover N72.5 billion from corrupt officials of Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Chairman of the Committee, Kingsley Chinda, who briefed reporters on the activities of his committee at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja also directed the commission to recover $1.819 million from those found wanting in the MDAs.

Among the fixed asset to be recovered from the corrupt officials whose identities were not disclosed are two Peugeot 504 cars, one Peugeot 406 valued at N1.460 million, one berretta pistol and 13-round live ammunition.

Chinda disclosed that the committee recovered N1.967 million after reviewing 510 queries to MDAs by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) between 2010 and 2014.

Chinda said notwithstanding President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign, the spate of recklessness in public spending was still rife.

Stressing that there was the need to strengthen key institutions like the office of the AGF to checkmate the ugly trend, he enjoined President Buhari to sign the Audit Commission Bill into law to achieve the goal.

He noted: “Generally, what we have observed is that not much has changed from the reckless system that we have operated in Nigeria. Not much has changed. Public spending is still not very responsible and so we need to begin to change.

“Weak institutions constitute one of our major problems. Government is not making deliberate attempts to strengthen institutions and therefore, the fight against corruption might not be sustained because institutions that ought to fight it are not strengthened.

“One typical example is the office of the AGF from where we get our raw material. The good thing that will happen to the fight against corruption is to sign the Audit Commission Bill and we pray that the assent is not refused as usual,” he stated.