Why I’m prioritising prevention over anti-corruption fight rather than enforcement — EFCC chairman
EFCC
Why I’m prioritising prevention over anti-corruption fight rather than enforcement — EFCC chairman
Abdullateef Fowewe
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede has revealed that his primary reason for prioritising corruption prevention mechanisms in the fight against corruption is because of its effectiveness and cost efficiency.
Olukayode disclosed this in a meeting with the management team of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, led by its Director General, Mallam Lanre Issa Onilu at EFCC corporate headquarters in Jabi, Abuja.
He stated that enforcement by chasing people with armoured vehicles and machine guns has never worked and it will never work.
He said, “Upon my assumption of office, I made it known to Nigerians that one of the key areas that we will pursue seriously and vigorously is the area of prevention. Everything in the anti-corruption fight is not about enforcement. There are policy issues that are involved.
“It is not all about throwing bombs and chasing people with armoured vehicles and machine guns. No, it has never worked and it will never work. We have been on the path of enforcement for 20 years now. Would anyone tell me that corruption is abating? The more you do, the more progress you make in the area of recovery, in the area of prosecution and conviction of people, the deeper the problem becomes.
“As you are facing one, people are inventing new areas and getting smarter by the day. And so, we have come to realise that there is actually nothing fundamentally wrong with our people, but that our values have been bastardised over the years and also the system that we run, so I made it known to Nigerians and the entire world that we will pursue the issue of prevention very seriously.”
To achieve this, the EFCC’s boss is amplifying anti-corruption enlightenment campaigns and establishment of institutional structures, noting that with prevention, the Commission no longer waits for money to first be stolen before it takes action.
“One of the key elements of prevention is public enlightenment for which we have commissioned EFCC Radio, 97.3 FM, produced the Fraud Risk Assessment Prevention for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies handbook and relaunched our Interfaith Manual. You don’t have to wait for the money to be stolen before you move in and that is exactly what we are doing. Pursuant to that, we have established a Directorate called Fraud Risk Assessment and Control. What we basically do with the new Directorate is that we will go out and monitor processes and procedures, for example, the award of contracts and procurement processes which we know constitute over 90 per cent of public corruption and also see how we can prevent the money being released to carry out projects from being diverted.
“So that is what we are doing, and rather than wait for people to steal, when we know that the system is so porous; when we know that there are leakages everywhere. So the little that filters out, we will pursue that and enforce our powers. I tell you, for every N10 stolen, you hardly recover N5 no matter how effective you are. And without disparaging any arm of government, we all know how difficult it is to get a high-profile conviction in this country.
“When you juxtapose all these, you will discover that the best way to do this is to go by way of prevention. Yes, we are still going to enforce, we have that power, but we believe that prevention is worth doing,” he enunciated.
