The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is holding its own staff to the same standard of accountability it’s holding the public, says the commission’s chairman.
Mr Ola Olukoyede disclosed this yesterday during an interactive session with newsmen in Abuja as he marked his three-year stay in office as EFCC boss. He said the affected staff were found guilty of corrupt practises.
“In the past two and a half to three years of my service, I have asked them to dismiss over 40 staff on account of corruption and financial malpractice. More than five of them are being prosecuted at the moment,” Olukoyede said.
The EFCC chairman said the case files of the affected persons are already public documents, challenging the public to fact-check in case anyone is still in doubt. If people in other departments get involved in financial crimes and are prosecutes, Olukoyede asked, why would he want to spare his own staff members should they commit the same crimes.
He also announced the renaming of the commission’s former Internal Affairs Department to the Department of Ethics and Integrity as part of its drive for “internal cleansing. Under the new policy, staff members are expected to declare gifts of specific amount whether such gifts are received from friends or relatives at home or abroad. The EFCC boss said such a measure is meant to curb possible glitch and strengthen accountability within the system.
“The commission will also define the categories of gifts personnel can accept and require officers to account for their sources of income and standard of living,” he added.
For the fight against corruption to be successful, Olukoyede said, then what are required are strong institutional reforms and policy changes as t law enforcement agencies alone couldn’t do it.
“The most effective system that fights financial crime is not law enforcement. It is the policy regime, institutional reforms that close leakages,” he said, urging the media and the civil society to take their watchdog role seriously.