EFCC Seeks Stronger Alliance With ICPC, CCB, BPP To Tackle Procurement Fraud

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has called for deeper collaboration among Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies to strengthen the fight against corruption, with procurement and contract fraud identified as the country’s biggest public sector challenge.

Olukoyede made the call on Wednesday during a strategic meeting at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja, where heads of key anti-graft institutions met to develop a lasting framework for cooperation.

The meeting brought together the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Adebowale Adedokun; Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Musa Adamu Aliyu; and Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Abdulahi Usman Bello.

Olukoyede said the agencies needed to pool resources and expertise to improve the delivery of their anti-corruption mandates.

“More than 80 percent of public sector corruption is caused by contract and procurement fraud and if you look at its impact on the economy, on our social life, health sector and all that, you will discover that it’s quite huge. If we can reduce this to the barest minimum, we would have gone a long way in realizing our mandates. If we can actually deal with the issue of contract and procurement fraud in Nigeria, probably within the next one year, the impact will be felt everywhere,” he said.

He stressed that enforcement agencies must work more closely with the BPP because of its regulatory role.

He said, “The essence of this meeting is to also work with the BPP. The BPP is a regulator. The three of us were enforcers. In fighting public and private sector procurement and contract fraud, if you don’t work with the regulator, technically speaking, a lot of things would be missed. It’s not just about waiting for them to steal the money. It’s about prevention, it’s about risk management. And that’s where the regulator comes in.

“They have the technical depth of the procurement processes which some of us may not have. If we work together, if we synergize to establish a sustainable institutional partnership between the law enforcement agencies and the BPP it will go a long way in helping us to reduce contract and procurement fraud. Basically that is the objective of this meeting.”

According to him, several provisions of the Public Procurement Act remain underutilised and could strengthen anti-corruption efforts if fully implemented.

Olukoyede also said closer cooperation would improve intelligence sharing, investigations and prosecution of corruption cases.

“I have discovered that there is really nothing to compete about. We can do joint investigations. Sometimes it may be necessary for us to do joint monitoring. I believe if we do these with the BPP that will help us a lot. Also, capacity building is very key,” he said.

He proposed the adoption of a Standard Operating Procedure to define the responsibilities of each agency, safeguard confidential information and institutionalise quarterly meetings.

“And then, going forward we believe we’ll be able to have this meeting on a quarterly basis so that we will review our resolutions and ultimately help our nation,” he added.

Backing the initiative, ICPC Chairman Aliyu said greater cooperation among anti-corruption agencies would eliminate duplication and boost public confidence.

“If ICPC, CCB, NFIU and EFCC come together it will give people confidence that we are really working together to fight corruption. And that will also help us in avoiding duplications because there are a lot of cases that people will file in EFCC, they will come to ICPC and they will go to Code of Conduct,” Aliyu said.

“This is an area where I have concern for us. Whenever I see any petition which is out of our mandate, I don’t touch it. I will direct it to either the CCB, EFCC or police. So that’s why this kind of meeting is very important and we need to use technology so that we eliminate duplication.”

The CCB chairman said corruption had cost Nigeria between ₦7 trillion and ₦25 trillion, noting that procurement fraud remained one of the biggest threats within the public sector.

He said collaboration involving the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, EFCC and ICPC was essential.

“The NFIU can provide information for us, the EFCC can investigate financial crimes, regarding procurement. The ICPC can also look at systemic corruption.”

During his presentation, Adedokun highlighted the importance of a strong procurement system, warning that weak processes often result in waste of public funds, project abandonment, poor infrastructure and corruption.

He maintained that public procurement reforms should focus on legal and institutional reforms, governance and accountability, strategic procurement, digital procurement and improved market operations.

“The most effective anti-corruption strategy is not merely to pursue wrongdoing after it occurs, but to design procurement systems where hide.”