Theft, mismanagement of funds must stop - Tambuwal

SPEAKER, House of Representatives, on Monday, said the House was determined to check corruption in Nigeria.

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Tambuwal, at a public hearing on a bill to establish the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency, organised by the House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes, in Abuja, said the House was fully determined to check the haemorrhaging of national resources in the country.
The bill, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), sought to establish the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency as the central body responsible for receiving, requesting, analysing and disseminating financial and other information to law enforcement and security agencies in the country.
“The House of Representatives of the Seventh Assembly is fully determined to do everything possible to check the haemorrhage of our national resources.
“We must make sure that the people we represent benefit from the democratic system they have sacrificed so much to make possible,” he said.
Tambuwal said that the country had witnessed the consequences of the reckless and cavalier manner that public officials and civil servants managed public funds.
He said billions of Naira got missing in the country every year as a result of mismanagement and theft, adding that the level of financial impunity was possible because of dubious accounting procedures and lack of a specialised agency.
Tambuwal, therefore, said the establishment of the agency would create a harmonious inter-agency relationship between various inter-related organisations.
In a remark, Honourable Adams Jagaba, chairman of the committee, said the bill, if passed, would curb money laundering and terrorism.
He said the prevailing institutional arrangement which placed National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) as a department under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was an aberration and not in consonance with international best practices.
All stakeholders at the hearing supported the bill, except the EFCC, which was conspicuously absent.
The speaker also said there is nothing wrong with the recent wave of defection ongoing in the lower chamber.
Tambuwal added that in due time, he would make his political ambition known.
Speaking at a poverty alleviation programme in Lagos State, he said “I believe that political leaders are beginning to realign themselves ahead 2015. It is a sign of good things to come.
“The politicians are not only defecting to All Progressives Congress (APC), there are some that have defected to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), so it’s a kind of a-two-way traffic.
“When the time comes, I will make my intentions known to my constituency concerning 2015, if at all I am going to run for election.
“All I ask God for now is to guide me as I discharge my duty as the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” he said.
...Tasks African lawmakers on Lake Chad Basin
Tambuwal has also tasked lawmakers in the five African countries in charge of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) on the inter-basin water transfer and charter.
Tambuwal, in Abuja, on Monday, at the first meeting of speakers, presidents of National Assemblies of the LCBC member states, comprising Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Central Africa Republic and Libya, said there was the need to work closely with the commission and executive secretariat of the LCBC, to ensure synergy and coordinated approach to achieve its goals.
Speaking on the re-inauguration of the Regional Parliamentary Committee (RPC) in Niamey, last year, he had stated that the committee had set out strategies to help the LCBC achieve its goals.
“Let me inform my new colleagues that the committee has a secretariat in Abuja, provided by the House of Representatives of Nigeria.
“I am pleased to inform you that I have made a promise to facilitate the rehabilitation of the RPC secretariat to make it fully functional and befitting as soon as the agreement is signed,” he said.
Speaking further, he said the committee had also included Libya in the membership of the RPC which, according to him, would reflect in the budget formular of the LCBC.
In her remarks, Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe, disclosed that the Lake Chad had shrunk from its over 25000sqkms in 1964 to about 1500sqkms.
She said Nigeria had granted about $5 million out of the $6 million required to carry out the feasibilty study of  inter-basin water transfer from Ubangui river to Lake Chad, to recharge the receding lake.
She expressed the hope that the re-inauguration of the RPC of the commission and participation of the speakers and presidents of the National Parliaments of LCBC would help address the current challenges of the Lake Chad.











REF   http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/news/lead-stories/item/32580-theft,-mismanagement-of-funds-must-stop-tambuwal-%E2%80%A2says-nothing-wrong-with-defection-of-reps.html