Buhari’s administration has expanded technical capacity to mitigate corruption ― APC Legacy Group

A voluntary think-tank group of the governing party, the APC Legacy Awareness and Campaign, has highlighted some initiatives of the present administration which it noted have helped to mitigate corruption in top federal government revenue generating agencies.

A statement signed by National Youth Leader of the party, Barrister Ismail Ahmed, former National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu and Mr Tolu Ogunlesi gave a detailed account of proactive measures taken by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to block leakages and financial recklessness.

According to the trio, such initiatives include the automation of the issuance and management of Import Duty Exemption Certificates, the ongoing rollout of a national vehicle registry (which will help bring an end to the evasion of vehicle duties), and the Customs Single Window project and the successful rollout of the Automated Payment System for the Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge Rail Line.

The APC group recalled that the present administration on assumption of office established the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), to walk its talk on its anti-corruption crusade.

“One outcome of this,” it noted, is the significant increase in the use of Non-Conviction Based Asset Forfeiture Mechanisms (Interim and Final Forfeitures) by the country’s anti-corruption agencies.

“High-profiled recoveries include the following: $322 million Abacha Loot from the Government of Switzerland; $311 million Abacha Loot from the Bailiwick of Jersey; $100 million recovered by the EFCC for the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), from a company operating in the oil and gas sector; 4.2 million pounds sterling of Ibori Loot from the UK Government; 53 billion Naira for the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), from a real estate developer; $43 million security funds from an apartment in Ikoyi; and 189 billion Naira in ‘restrained’ funds from inflated personnel budgets, following ICPC’s scrutiny of practices, systems and procedures of MDAs’ personnel cost from 2019 to 2020.

“Billions of Naira in pension funds have been recovered from local and foreign Insurance Companies who have been holding on to assets of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).”

Giving landmark achievements of recovery of public funds, the APC group cited the recovery of close to a Trillion Naira worth of stolen funds and assets.

“All final forfeitures are being deployed for use in the government’s special Infrastructure and Social Investment Programmes or put into the annual budget.

“The most recent Abacha and Ibori Loots were transferred to the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), for transparent management under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF).

“In addition to looted and hidden funds, the Buhari Administration is also focused on ensuring that taxes and other debts owed the federal government are recovered in full.

“To this end, the Federal Ministry of Finance launched the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) in 2017, and the Voluntary Offshore Asset Regularization Scheme (VOARS) in 2018.

“VAIDS was followed by the launch of Project Lighthouse in 2018, by the Federal Ministry of Finance, as a data-mining initiative that aggregates tax, income and asset data from individuals and companies, enabling the government to have a full picture of levels of tax compliance.

“So far Project Lighthouse has identified debts in excess of 5 trillion Naira, owed the federal government by individuals and corporate entities, with recoveries ongoing.”

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