NEITI ES
Waziri Adio
NEITI,
NEITI ES
Waziri Adio
NEITI, EFCC Set to Sign MoU
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
(NEITI) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
have agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will
strengthen the partnership and cooperation between the two agencies
in the fight against corruption.
The MoU will focus more on identified financial crimes disclosed
by the NEITI reports in the oil, gas and mining industries. It will
also specify how NEITI and the EFFCC will deal with such crimes
expeditiously through information and intelligence sharing as well
as human capacity mobilization.
These resolutions were part of the highlights of decisions
reached at a high level meeting between the Executive Secretary of
NEITI, Waziri Adio and the Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu with
top management team of the two agencies.
Speaking at the meeting, the Executive Secretary of NEITI Waziri
Adio, drew the attention of the EFCC to other emerging issues in
the implementation of the EITI in Nigeria which would require the
attention and support of the EFCC to implement effectively in the
best interest of the Nigerian economy. He listed the emerging
issues to include, Beneficial Ownership Disclosure, Contract
Transparency, Commodity Trading and Oil Theft.
According to Mr. Adio, Beneficial Ownership disclosure seeks to
provide information to the public on the real owners of businesses
in Nigeria’s oil, gas and mining industries and requires the
support of the EFCC towards its implementation. This he explained
was in view of the strong connection between disclosure of the
beneficial owners of companies and financial crimes such as money
laundering, tax evasion and terrorism financing.
Mr. Adio called on the EFCC Chairman to work with NEITI as the
agency’s legitimate interest in deepening transparency in these
areas is as a result of the strong linkages between corruption in
the nation’s extractive sector and sabotage of the economy. He
commended the Chairman of the EFCC and his team for their hard
work, courage and commitments resulting in the visible achievements
so far recorded by the Commission in the discharge of its
assignments.
The Chairman of the EFCC Ibrahim Magu, described NEITI and the
EFCC as key partners in progress. He said that the time to
strengthen the partnership between the two agencies has become very
urgent.
Mr Magu described the extractive industries as not only the main
source of revenues to the economy but also source of corruption and
financial crimes.
The Chairman explained that the EFCC has established a special
unit to advise the commission on financial crimes arising from the
NEITI reports in the oil, gas and mining sectors for immediate
action.
He remarked that the MoU between the two agencies will be quite
useful to define clearly the rules of engagement. He said that this
will be followed by the establishment of a joint operations
committee to ensure effective implementation of the MoU.
He commended NEITI for what he described as useful and well
researched information and data which the agency has consistently
placed in the public domain on process lapses and corruption in the
nation’s extractive industry.
Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji
Director, Communications and Advocacy