President Muhammadu Buhari says the approval of the Asset Tracing, Recovery and Management Regulations 2019 was done to ensure a coordinated and centralised agency for the management of recovered assets.
The President was speaking at the passing out parade of Detective Inspector 5, of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, held in Kaduna state.
President buhari explained that given the increased success of Nigeria’s Anti-Corruption Agencies such as the EFCC in recovery of proceeds of crime and successful prosecution of corruption cases, discussion on the management of such assets have been up-scaled in the public domain.
He said he was determined to see that recovered assets are effectively managed with greater impact on fiscal operations of government and social investment policies of his administration.
The President further stressed the need to introduce a legal framework enforcing reporting of all non-classified public sector operations online, just as in many other countries, this he said would facilitate quicker attainment of shared goals on open governance and the decimation of corruption in the country,
”My resolve is to ensure that the reforms are deepened such that there would be no hiding place for corrupt persons and proceeds of corruption”,
“My aim is to ensure that no government financial transaction is done in secret and all are subjected to public scrutiny. Nigeria has been ranked by the World Bank as one of the top 10 reforming countries in the world. I assure you that we shall do even better.
“We have made substantial progress in making available to the public, data on all contracts across government agencies. The Bureau of Public Procurement has test run the Nigeria Open Contracting Portal where such data would be uploaded.
“We have started Quarterly disclosures by NNPC, its subsidiaries and PPMC of sale-level data on oil and gas sales. We have also developed Beneficial Ownership Register for companies that hold exploration, production and export licenses and published online.
“The Open Government Partnership Secretariat, in collaboration with NEITI and Facility for Oil Sector Transparency is working hard to implement the Open Governance extractives commitments which include full online disclosure of all oil, gas and mining contracts in the area of exploration and production, exports, offtakings and Swaps.
He explained that the Nigeria’s Action Plan for Open Government Partnership contains commitments such as Fiscal Transparency, Disclosure of Beneficial Owners of Companies by Corporate Affairs Commission and Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), open Contracting Data Standards anchored by the Bureau of Public Procurement and generally to curb corruption.
While congratulating the graduating officers, president Buhari said he hoped they had acquired the requisite knowledge needed to prosecute the war against corruption
” As law enforcement officers, I expect that you have attained high endurance level and the intellectual capacity to investigate and facilitate EFCC’s prosecutorial powers. I have great confidence in you.”
