Scores of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of the Initiative for Leadership and Economic Watch in Nigeria have expressed their desire to team up with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to monitor the budget at national and subnational levels to ensure optimal performance.
The group stated this during a courtesy visit to the executive chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja.
Speaking on behalf of the leaders of the CSOs, Ambassador Splendor Agbonkpolor said that the groups came together to operate as a committee, basically to focus on budget monitoring and implementation in the country.
“The budget is our major concern. Our mandate is to monitor budget implementation; to assess budget effectiveness, identify budget gaps, advocate for reforms, promote transparency, provide evidence-based reports, collaborate with stakeholders, and support capacity building”, he said.
Speaking further, Agbonkpolor said the CSOs decided to team up with the EFCC “because we believe that the fight against corruption is not a one -man show. It is not a one-agency business. It’s not a sole business of the EFCC. The EFCC needs Nigerians to assist it in terms of reportage and information. The committee believes that corruption starts with procurement. If corruption is tackled from the point of procurement down to the point of implementation, at the end of the day, the money that would be stolen from the budget would be minimized.
“In our work, over time, we discovered that despite the huge money received by contractors for projects, whenever we get to the site, nothing would be there. If we go on site and we see that a project that was supposed to be on ground is not on ground, we will come to the EFCC and say look at this project, look at the amount of money that has been paid, but there is nothing on ground. So, it makes the work easier for the EFCC to just go there and investigate.”
Agbonkpolor stressed the need for collaboration and cooperation in the fight against corruption.
“The need for us to come together as a team, to be more formidable, to be able to render that independent service to enhance the work of EFCC is very important. It is the reason why we put ourselves together and said, let us come as a committee; let us see how we can begin to assist the government in this direction. And that is why we ran to the EFCC through our organizations on behalf of the committee, so that we can have this interface and understanding and more collaboration,” he said.
Olukoyede, on his part, expressed gratitude to the CSOs for showing “deep interest in seeing that Nigeria moves forward”, adding, “we can only achieve that by collaboration. I have been saying it and I will continue to say it that fighting corruption is not the work of law enforcement or anti-corruption agencies alone and that is why I am so much in love with your initiative. I can guarantee you all our support. When I see civil society with us, it gives me confidence that we are succeeding.”
Olukoyede added, “We are all victims of this crime. So, we are ready to work with you. Budget implementation and monitoring are key. We will ensure that our collaboration with you is strong.”
