Over N1.3trn looted in four years, says EFCC boss

The Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, says over N1.3 trillion has been stolen by 32 entities between 2011 and 2015.

Magu disclosed this at an event held in Lagos, on Monday, according to a statement by the commission’s Acting Head, Media and Publicity, Tony Orilade.

The event was the “2019 First Batch Conversion Training Programme to Procurement Cadre for Federal Parastatals and Agencies.

It was organised by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).

Magu, who was represented by the commission’s Secretary, Mr Ola Olukoyede, decried that this was a huge financial loss to the country.

He said “One third of this money, using World Bank rates and cost, could have comfortably been used to construct well over 500 kilometre of roads.

“Build close to 200 schools; educate about 4, 000 children from primary to tertiary levels at N25 million per child; build 20, 000 units of two-bedroom houses across the country and do even more.

“The cost of this grand theft, therefore, is that these roads, schools and houses will never be built and these children will never have access to quality education.

“This is because a few rapacious individuals have cornered for themselves what would have helped secure the lives of the future generations thereby depriving them of quality education and healthcare, among others.”

He said that the poor state of procurement process in Nigeria was one of the major reasons why corruption had continued to thrive in government agencies and parastatals.

Magu identified some of the fraudulent practices in procurement processes to include kickbacks, conflict of interests, fraud in the bidding process, bid suppression among others.