Tina Amanda
Port Harcourt – A Retired Director of the Department of State Service, DSS, Mr Dennis Amachree, has said that it should not be the sole prerogative of the Nigeria Police to continuously head the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Amachree gave the advice to the government during an interview with our correspondent in Port Harcourt at the weekend.
The advice was based on the recent arrest of the Acting Chairman of the Commission, Ibrahim Magu, over alleged fraud.
According to him, there is an urgent need for a review of the act that prescribes the quality of persons that will serve in the chairmanship position of the anti-corruption agency for better accountability and transparency.
He stressed that a proper structure should be put in place as there exist several loopholes in the EFCC due to lack of supervision.
“The heads of this Commission oftentimes become lords to themselves, they are not well supervised because the supervision has to come from the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General, just like it is being done in the United States of America where the Federal Bureau of Investigation is supervised by the Justice Secretary.
“To fight corruption, proper institution and structure must be put in place. They also need to wind the pool of candidates who are chosen to be Chairmen of EFCC. The position should not be filled by only Police Officers and if a proper structure is in place, other things will be in place.
“EFCC is supposed to audit its account, but for five years, they have not given an account audit. They should account for all the money that has been recovered from fraud”
He, however, blamed weak public institutions and the absence of checks on public office holders to make them accountable for their stewardship.
Mr Amachree also suggested that the EFCC should not only be an institution set up with the primary aim of Investigating stolen or fraudulent money.
He noted that Nigeria’s reputation is going down every day due to corrupt practices.
“The nation still ranks high in the list of corrupt countries in the world. Remember this present administration led by the All Progressives Congress came to power to fight corruption, but corruption is still at its peak and the nation’s reputation is going down each day”
