40 SUVs recovered from ex-perm sec
The Federal
Government yesterday said it was compiling an asset tracing team that will work
with reputable international bodies to trace and recover public assets in
private hands.
This is even as government disclosed that a
retired permanent secretary went home with the government’s 40 Sports Utility
Vehicles (SUVs) and other vehicles.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, who stated this in a statement issued in Lagos, yesterday, said
the fight against corruption was actually being guided by a well-articulated
strategy contrary to the misconception in some quarters.
The minister told Daily Sun the identity of
the retired permanent secretary will remain hidden for now so as not to
jeopadise the level of investigations.
Mohammed said the Code of Conduct Bureau
(CCB) will, from next year, commence electronic asset declaration to facilitate
compliance, including the search and retrieval of data on the assets of public
officers, as part of its comprehensive anti-corruption strategy.
He noted that government was not just
obsessed about prosecution alone, but was also taking preventive measures to
make corruption unattractive.
Mohammed itemised some milestones of the
administration’s anti-corruption strategy to include the recovery of 40 brand
new SUVs and other vehicles from an unnamed former permanent secretary, who
single-handedly appropriated the vehicles to himself, strict enforcement of the
Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the constant fishing out of ghost workers in
the public service, among others.
“In this regard, government will also
escalate the use of non-conviction-based asset recovery methods to boost
revenue and diminish corruption and the perception that crime pays or criminals
can keep their loot. The Federal Government is getting Nigerians in diaspora
and international civil society organisations involved in the campaign for the
return of looted assets,’’ the minister stated.
Other measures already perfected to
strengthen the anti-corruption fight, Mohammed said, were the establishment of
the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Presidential
Committee on Asset Recovery and the Asset Tracing Committee; the setting up of
an Asset Register as well as the Whistleblower policy.
Besides, he said PACAC was working with
relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MADs), especially the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS), to improve data collection on corruption indicators
generally.
The minister stated that it was on the
recommendation of PACAC that a centralised management of recovered looted
assets was put in place, through the Central Asset Management Committee under
the leadership of Minister of Finance as legal custodian of government assets.
He emphasised that the move has reduced the
opportunity for re-looting of recovered assets as was prevalent under the
previous regime, explaining that the “EFCC, ICPC and all asset recovery law
enforcement agencies are mandatorily required to furnish the Minister of
Finance with full details of recovered asset whether cash or otherwise.”
He assured that data reconciliation will soon
be completed and the information made available to the public.
