FG Uses Recovered N1trn for Budgets

FG Uses Recovered N1trn for Budgets

POLITICS DIGEST – The Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) said on Thursday that the N1 trillion recovered by various government agencies was all used to finance the 2017 and 2018 national budgets.

The chairman, Prof. Itse Sagay, made the disclosure while fielding questions from newsmen on what he described as “unprecedented” strides by the panel after he led the members to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

His words: “I don’t need to tell anybody, it is unprecedented in the annals of this country that we could be recovering so many assets illegally acquired mainly by public servants.

“And the more remarkable aspect of it is that this recovered loot is being ploughed into the national budget every year, and used for the Social Investment Programmes. So, you hear about the feeding of over 12 million schoolchildren with a nutritious meal every day.

“You hear of poor families being supported to survive and stand on their feet or over 500,000 young people who are being trained in all sorts of skills and paid N30,000 a month by the government and the interest-free loans given to small-scale businesses all over the country.

“It is all part of this money, not a kobo of it is left. Everything is ploughed back, and I think the country should know that it’s very unprecedented. This has never happened before in the history of this country, everything is ploughed back.”

The constitutional lawyer said the committee, has, as part of its assignment, built the capacity of relevant anti-graft agencies to effectively discharge their duties.

He said: “We have succeeded in improving the quality of prosecution by giving the agencies a lot of capacity building, train them in the manner cases should be prosecuted and how charges should be drawn. Judges up to the Supreme Court have also benefitted from this programme.”

The chairman boasted that the panel had ensured that “nobody talks about fuel subsidy corruption anymore.”

Sagay hinted that PACAC was working towards recovering the N5 trillion owed the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCOM) by high-profile Nigerians.

Earlier, President Muhammadu Buhari restated his administration’s commitment to tame graft with a view to reducing the cost of governance in the country.

He commended the committee for their great work.

Deploring the situations in the past where seized assets were returned to looters on account of regime change, Buhari stated that he had ordered for all forfeited assets to be sold, “and the money put in the Treasury Single Account.”