The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is seeking an amendment to its Act to allow the agency to keep part of the funds it recovers from persons being prosecuted for its operations.
The Chairman of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, made the request when she appeared before the House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financials Crimes in Abuja on Thursday.
Waziri said that keeping a percentage of recovered funds would help address the alleged “poor funding” of the operations of the commission.
Under the EFCC Act, the commission is not empowered to use any percentage of the funds it recovers from treasury looters or persons prosecuted for financial crimes.
But, as she spoke, the committee recommended the approval of N9.1bn as its budget for 2011.
According to Waziri, in other countries, anti-graft agencies are adequately funded by allowing them to use part of the funds they recover.
She cited the case of the United States, informing the committee that the US Government allowed its anti-graft agency to keep up to five per cent of recovered funds.
Waziri added that in spite of the huge responsibilities placed before the commission, the money made available to it was hardly enough to prosecute cases and conduct investigations.
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EFCC seeks power to keep seized funds