Speaking yesterday at a public hearing on A Bill for An Act to Establish the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Agency, NFIA, 2013, organised by the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Economic Crimes, Aremu said that the financial challenges facing the anti–graft agency were because of what he called the non-remittance of appropriated funds for the agency by the federal government over the months.
“I could recollect when the committee paid us an oversight function visit. We did make our financial position known to the committee that EFCC does not have N2 million in its accounts.
“We have been complaining that no money has been released for us for operations. If we can afford to pay salary this month that is all. That is the position under which we operate presently,” a report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the EFCC secretary as saying.
He opposed the intention of the bill in making Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) currently a department in EFCC, independent, adding: “FIU, in most climes of the world, is run as a secret operational centre at the background of a major body like EFCC as it is presently in Nigeria.
“FIU as intended by the bill should not be exposed to the public as a separate body on its own. It should be kept at the background as it is in most climes of the world.”
The EFCC seem to be the only government establishment against the bill as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Intelligence Agency and National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, all supported the proposed bill.
