Anti-Corruption: Proceeds Of Crime Bill Gets FEC’s Approval

… FG To Establish Asset Recovery Agency
… Says Economy Performing Better Than Expected

Nigeria is soon to establish an agency to manage assets recovered by anti-graft agencies in the course of investigation and prosecution of offenders.

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved a bill to create the agency.

The bill, Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency Bill, was approved following a memo submitted by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, to the session presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari. .

The bill is now to be forwarded to the National Assembly for the necessary legislative fireworks.

The purpose of the proposed law/agency is to bring all recovered or forfeited assets under one umbrella where they can be properly managed and accounted for, as against the current practice where crime proceeds are scattered all over the place.

THE WHISTLER recalls that attempts to have proceeds of crime bill in place had failed in three previous attempts.

The first attempt was made in 2007, followed by another one in 2011 and a third attempt in 2019.

In all the earlier attempts, the bill didn’t get the blessing of the FEC until the fourth one on Wednesday when it secured the approval.

Malami, while speaking with State House Correspondents after the meeting, explained the aim of the bill further.

He stated, “It is in essence a bill that is targeted and intended to have in place a legal and institutional framework. The legal component of it is having a law. And the institutional component of it is to have an agency that will be saddled with the responsibility of managing the assets that constitute the proceeds of crime in Nigeria.

“What happens before now is the proceeds of crime are scattered all over, and mostly in the hands of different and multiple agencies of government inclusive of the police, the Department of State Services, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission.

“So, with that kind of arrangement which is adhoc, there is no agency of government that is saddled with the responsibility of data generation, an agency that can give you off head the number of landed assets , number of immovable assets , the amount in cash that are recovered by the federal government by way of interim forfeiture over weigh of a final forfeiture.

“So, it is indeed overtime a kind of arrangement that is not uniform and consistent.”

The AGF, who added that the bill would enhance transparency in the anti-corruption fight of the government, denied that it had anything to do with the recent row between his office and the suspended former Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Magu.

Rather, he said the idea of the bill pre-dated Magu and the present structure of the EFCC, as it was first initiated in 2007.

“So, perhaps to now tie it to a particular institution or particular development of 2020, I think is unfounded taking into consideration the historical antecedents relating to the bill”, Malami stated.

Another approval made by the FEC was a new National Policy on Occupational Safety, 2020.

According to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, who spoke on the policy, its aim is to promote the safety of workers in their work locations in the country.

Ngige added that it was provided for by the 1999 Constitution. He also said the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) convention recognised that countries should have such a policy in place to protect workers.

He stated that the policy was last reviewed 14 years ago, necessitating the urgency to have a new one in place in 2020.

Ngige gave details,“The last policy we have was approved in 2006, which makes it exactly 14 years since that was approved by the Federal Executive Council and that is the policy we have been working on. But you know that 14 years is a long span in the life of any law so in the course of operation, certain issues have been thrown up, the world has gone digital, work place mechanism and hazards have been changing and it was therefore necessary that we do a new policy.

“This policy we did now is what you call repeal and replace and it takes care of all that is needed for now, for the health of Nigerian workers…

“It gives specific roles to agencies -National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA); Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA); Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Standards Organisation of Nigeria; and the Federal Ministry of Health.

“Everybody has his own role now because it is a cross-cutting situation as most Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government are involved.” 

Meanwhile, the Minster of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, appraised the nation’s economy and concluded that it posted better results than expected, despite the hit it got from the raging COVID -19 pandemic.

She said latest reports by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that the economy did not perform as badly as had been feared.

The minister explained her position further, “We presented a memo to council in respect of the second quarter GDP report, earlier released by the National Bureau of Statistics on the 24th of August.

“Why the memo is so dated is because there was a retreat last week and we couldn’t get scheduled as well. Still for us, the information is important and topical.

“The GDP report shows that the economy went into negative growth of -6.10% in the second quarter but that the aggregate performance for half year 2020 is -2.1%. This performance of -6.10% is a good performance in the sense that it is better than what we have projected second quarter performance to be at -7.2%. 

“This performance also is a good performance because it outperformed the projections that had been done by the Brentwood institutions. But it also outperformed very developed economies of the world and also economies that are comparable to us.

“The US for example went into negative growth of 33% for the second quarter 2020 and 19% half year 2020. Similarly, the UK, Canada, Italy and several countries of the world all went into very significant negative growth. 

“So, Nigeria’s economy has shown some level of resilience in this level of performance.

“We also reported to council that even though out of the 46 sectors of the economy, 30 of these sectors showed negative growth, but there were still some sectors that were growing on the positive territory. 

“These sectors include agriculture as well as financial services and the ICT services. This is actually showing that even during the COVID era, there were still some sectors that stood firm and indeed were growing. 

“The inflation was also reported to be moving up gradually, capital importation did not dry up despite the lockdowns and the difficulties all countries experienced. But this is reflected by the significant decline in capital importation into the country.

“Exchange rate has moved up from $326 at the beginning of the quarter to $367. Again this is reflecting some of the policies that government had to take to ensure that the economy remain in a stable condition. 

“In addition to the roll out of the economic sustainability plan, which had seen us starting to implement major public works across the country, to ensure that people are employed or kept in jobs, this ESP improve support for small businesses including payroll support so that people are not finding themselves unemployed or small businesses are not closing down.”