Corruption: We did not spend recovered funds ― ICPC

ICPC Chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye

The Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, on Thursday, said all monies recovered and generated by the commission were paid into the coffers of the Federal Government.

Professor Owasanoye, according to a statement by the ICPC spokesperson, Mrs Azuka Agugua, disclosed this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance, investigating the activities of revenue-generating agencies of the government, in Abuja

He told the committee that ICPC has no retention powers over funds or assets recovered from corrupt people.

The ICPC boss said that the commission has a designated account for the recovery of proceeds of crime called, ‘ICPC Recovery Account’ into which all recovered funds were paid for onward payment into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government once there were no encumbrances.

“ICPC was not contemplated as a revenue-generating agency. In the course of our work, we do recover funds, however, ICPC does not spend recovered assets. We do not use part of it for our work,” he stated.

According to him: “When we investigate, we also look at the tax components and bring defaulters into the tax net which goes straight to the Federal Inland Revenue Service.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, expressed concern that Nigeria’s national budget was becoming too dependent on loans partly due to non-compliance to financial regulations by government revenue generating agencies.“

The revenue-generating agencies of the government have taken solace and pleasure in diverting the government’s money, taking care of frivolous expenditure and making provision in audited accounts that are fictitious in nature. The 2021 budget is to the deficit of N6 trillion, the government cannot continue this way,” he stressed.

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