Illicit Financial Flows: Reps Probe NNPC, CBN, FIRS, EFCC
The House of Representatives has
resolved to invite various departments and agencies of the Federal Government
over illicit financial flows in Nigeria.
At the plenary on Thursday, the
House specifically mandated its committees on Finance; Anti-Corruption;
Financial Crimes; Banking and Currency; and Insurance and Actuarial Matters to
‘investigate the phenomenon of illicit financial flows and appraise the Federal
Governments current policy framework to curb the continuous loss of Nigeria’s’
revenues to illicit financial flows’.
The House also mandate the
committees on finance; national planning and economic development;
anti-corruption; financial crimes; banking; and currency and insurance and
actuarial matters to appraise the Federal Inland Revenue Service’s current
framework for identifying, tracing, preventing and sanctioning cross-border tax
evasion and other illicit financial outflows.
The committees are to invite the
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainad Ahmed; and heads of
the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
Central Bank of Nigeria, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, Nigerian Export-Import Bank,
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ‘and any other relevant institutions’.
They are to ‘address the
committees on the continuous loss of government revenues to illicit financial
flows and present reports on the measures to curb revenue losses, particularly
the coordinated implementation of the automatic exchange of information
standard, to prevent further revenue leakages, curb tax evasion and money
laundering activities’.
These resolutions followed the
unanimous adoption of a motion moved by Chairman of the House Committee on
Local Content, Ochiglegor Idagbo, titled ‘Need to appraise Nigeria’s legal
framework against illicit financial flows’.
Idagbo explained that IFF was the
cross-border transfer of capital that was illegally earned, transferred or
utilised, and often consisted of commercial money laundering, tax evasion and
proceeds of corruption and criminal activities.
The lawmaker said that the
socioeconomic development of Nigeria had deeply suffered due to the unabated
cross-border financial dealings of the nation’s revenues resulting from illicit
financial flows.
Idagbo decried that statistics
showed that the amount of revenues lost annually was more than what came in as development
aid.
The lawmaker further decried that
despite having at least 12 institutions and agencies responsible for tackling
IFF and related crimes, Nigeria continued to be menaced by weak regulatory
structures and complicity of other financial secrecy.
