Magu defends N22bn EFCC budget

The acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, on Tuesday, appeared before the Senate Committee on Anti-corruption and Financial Crimes to defend the N22, 070,514,431.00, budget proposal of the commission for 2019.
The figure represents a 16.38% decrease from the 2018 budget of N26, 392,396,279.00, (twenty six billion, three hundred and ninety two million, three hundred and ninety six thousand, two hundred and seventy nine naira).
The 2019 fiscal year, sees a 14% increase in the Personnel Cost proposal from 12.717 billion in 2018 to 14.491billion in 2019.
The increase according to Magu “accommodates the salaries and allowances of 970 additional staff approved for recruitment, who are expected to be fully enrolled on the personnel cost platform in 2019.”
This, he further reveals, “comprises 332 Assistant Detective Superintendents, 293 Assistant Detective Inspectors currently undergoing training at NDA Kaduna and 95 support staff that recently joined the services of the Commission.”
The Commission, he said, “has also made proposal for an upward review of salaries and allowances of its staff to Salaries, Income and Wages Commission. This has been forwarded to the Presidency and, if approved, will be covered by Supplementary Appropriation.”
The Commission’s overhead cost which the Budget Office reduced from N7.3billion to N3.6billion was considered grossly inadequate by the Commission in view of the running cost of three new zonal offices, proposed group staff life insurance of N650m, huge outlays on generator fuel cost, increase in airfares, proposed 60% increase in the rates of duty tour allowance (DTA) payable to staff on official assignment.
Same for capital expenditure proposal, which was drastically reduced from N15.196billion to N3.978billion, represents a 74.82% reduction from the approved estimate of N10.07billion in 2018.
Magu considered the capital budget approval inadequate in view of the Commission’s N2.02billion outstanding liabilities to Julius Berger, N1.5billion cost runs on its new head office complex, N0.299billion liabilities for consultancy on new head office, N0.47billion for purchase of security equipment (ammunition), N1.1billion, on furnishing of new head office building, development of the permanent site of the EFCC Academy, Lafia; renovation of the old EFCC head office building, Wuse 2, Abuja, and the renovation of the Lagos Zonal Offices (10 Okotie Eboh and 15 Awolowo Road.
Though N14.571 billion which is a little over half of the 2018 budget approval was released to the Commission, Magu enumerated the high points of his Commission’s last year budget performance to include: increase in the personnel cost of the Commission from N7.6billion in 2017 to N8.5 billion, which were the consequences of the full enrollment of 314 Assistant Detective Superintendents and same for 183 Assistant Detective Inspectors following the completion of their training programme in May and January 2018, respectively; completion of the Commission’s Jabi District, new head office complex and relocation; the establishment of three new zonal offices in Makurdi, Sokoto and Ilorin.
Others are the hosting of Heads of Anti-corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa (HACA) in Abuja in May, last year; anti-corruption concerts hosted in Abuja, Kano, Lagos and Enugu as well as the first ever anti-corruption marathon that featured hundreds of marathoners from across the country, civil society organizations, and sports celebrities; acquisition of hectares of land in Nasarawa State for the construction of the permanent site of the EFCC Academy, of which development is expected to commence this year. Also, is the furnishing of the Commission’s Forensic Laboratory, located in the Commission’s Head Office Complex with state-of-the-art equipment.