A substantial amount of the loot recovered by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has been used to finance some social investment project of the government.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made this known on Wednesday while delivering a keynote address titled, ‘Notable trends in the war against corruption.”
Osinbajo was represented by Waziri Adio, executive secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), at a function to celebrate World Anti-Corruption Day.
Some of the social investment programmes, according to him, are the homegrown school feeding programme, growth enterprise and empowerment pogramme as well as N-Power.
Said he: “A large portion of recovered assets is used to fund the social investment projects of this administration.
“In 2016, Nigeria joined the open government partnership (OGP) and has thus far made 14 commitments aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability in the management of public office and increasing citizen participation in governance.
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“Some of such commitments include open contracting (via the ICRC’s PPP contract disclosure portal), technology-based citizens’ feedback, presidential committee on asset recovery, voluntary assets and income declaration scheme, and the special investigation panel on the recovery of public property.
“The 2016, 2017 and proposed 2018 budgets all have a line for the recovery of stolen public funds. Hence, the recovery of funds is a revenue line.”
Osinbajo spoke about the problems associated with recovering loots stashed abroad.
“The criminality involved in the initial acceptance of stolen funds by institutions in these countries is oftentimes left unpunished.”
He added that in order to be successful, the war against corruption required the constant recruitment of stakeholders and partners, particularly from other arms of government and civil society organisations
