CBN budget, 10% size of Nigeria’s budget, says NFIU boss

.As NFIU demands CBN condition of service

.Lawan promises legislative support to EFCC, ICPC in fighting corruption

It was revealed on Tuesday that the budget of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is about one – tenth the size of the total budget of the country.

While the Federal Government budgeted a sum of N10.33 trillion for the 2020 appropriation, the budget of the CBN is above a trillion naira.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Moddibo Hamnan Tukur, who made this disclosure demanded that salaries of operatives of the agency be captured as sub-head under the yearly expenditure profile of the Central Bank.

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Tukur, who made the request on Tuesday during budget defence before the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, said since NFIU is now domiciled in CBN, albeit as an autonomous agency, its salary structure and condition of service should reflect that of the CBN 100%.

According to him, though request made to that effect by NFIU to Mr. President in line with its establishment Act, was honoured by him but not fully, which he said the committee members should look into.

“When we were with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as an intelligence unit, condition of salary and service applicable to operatives of the commission were fully extended to us.

“When we were moved to CBN as stipulated by the Act, we expected the same operational and management procedure to follow fully, which is not the case presently.

“We firmly believe that this can be done by the apex bank by just capturing our personnel costs as a sub head under their expenditure profile on yearly basis,” he said.

He added that operatives of the agency needed to be well remunerated to avoid being consumed by temptations that come their ways on daily basis as regards millions of US dollars being tracked and fraudulently smuggled into the nation’s financial system.

“This morning alone, NFIU tracked and reversed $1.5million of such fraudulent transactions. Some of the Banks are in problem finding all means of getting out of it.

“A lot of money is being taken out of  the Energy Sector within the radius of billions of dollars but we are living up to the task of tracking and frustrating the financial fraud in line with our primary responsibility of Assets tracing and tracking “, he said.

He lamented further that out of the N1.1 billion capital budgetary votes appropriated for the agency in 2019, only N400 million has just being promised to be released to it this week, which according to him, translated into zero % implementation for now.

He appealed to the Committee chaired by Senator Suleiman Kyari (APC Kaduna North), to help push for approval of the agency’s 2020 capital budget component of N4.2 billion.

This, he explained, was very necessary for the agency to finance the construction of its office in the Villa at the approved cost of N3.5 billion and give to the Supreme Court, N500 million as cost incurred from its building being used as temporary office.

His words: “The office site is in the Villa and the contractor is Julius Berger, everything has already been approved at the executive level, requiring appropriation from the National Assembly “.

But a member of the committee, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye (APC Ekiti South), described the capital budget projection of the agency for 2020 as too ambitious, having not been adequately funded in 2019.

He advised the agency to think outside the budgetary provisions in raising money through grants seeking from international donors.

“N4.2bn as capital budget proposal for 2020 is too ambitious. Find ways by which you can meet some of your capital commitment outside the budget “, he said.

However, the chairman of the committee assured the agency of required assistance in getting its salary structure to align with of the CBN and approval for the projected N4.2bn 2020 capital budget proposal.

In another development, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said that the National Assembly will provide the necessary support to the anti-corruption agencies in the fight against corruption.

He said on Tuesday that “the 9th Senate and indeed the National Assembly is set to support the anti-corruption agencies to the best of its ability, to enable us eradicate the malaise.

The Senate President gave the assurance in Abuja while declaring open the third EFCC National Capacity Building Workshop for Justices and Judges in collaboration with the National Judicial Institute (NJI).

“What we face today in the area of corruption requires that all hands must be on deck to fight it. And we are determined to work with other arms of government to fight it.

“It is a fight that should be fought by all and we are ready to initiate moves that will help in ensuring we succeed in the fight.

“We are also continuously prepared to support agencies like the EFCC and professionals like the Justices and Judges always,” Lawan said.

The Senate President noted that corruption has eaten deep into the very fabric of “our society” and has literarily become endemic.

He acknowledged that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has done a lot in the last couple of years in fighting corruption but added that the fight has surely not been an easy one.

“Dealing with corruption is surely a task we must undertake very well. The consistency of the EFCC on its mandate is quite commendable.

“The best we can continue to do in our circumstance is to encourage anti-corruption agencies like the EFCC and the ICPC discharge their mandate very well.

“The police are also inclusive because of their statutory responsibility of enforcing law and order, by preventing and detecting crime,” Lawan added.

He said the Justices and Judges need all the ethical, moral and institutional support to be exemplary in the discharge of their duties.

The Senate President advocated for a review of the basic school curricula to include the teaching of anti-corruption tenets.

“I believe that we should look at our civic education. We shouldn’t wait until people commit corruption before we start chasing them.

“We should start educating our children in schools, basic education secondary level and even tertiary level, on the ills of corruption in any society.

“Therefore, it is a task that requires that we review the current curricula of our basic education particularly to include something like what corruption means, the ills and the responsibility on every citizen to be part and parcel of the fight against this scourge,” Lawan said.