September 26, (THEWILL) – The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), has inaugurated a 14-man Asset Disposal Committee to manage assets forfeited to the Federal Government.
President Muhammadu Buhari had last year (October, 27, 2020), approved the composition of a 22-member Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Disposal of Federal Government’s Forfeited Assets .
The Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) mandated the creation of an Asset Disposal Committee in every agency to manage recovered assets.
Chairman of the ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, said this is to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of forfeited assets.
Owasanoye, who inaugurated the committee at the ceremony recently at the ICPC headquarters in Abuja, said: “For the purpose of putting sanity and clarity in the entire process, one of the things POCA mandated is the creation, in every agency, of a department to manage recovered assets. By law, all the agencies that recover must have a department to manage assets. For example, if a perishable item is recovered, the agency has the power to dispose of them immediately”.
According to him, the inauguration of the Committee was aimed at ensuring proper coordination of the disposal of recovered assets.
It is also aimed at promoting a harmonised and transparent procedure that would safeguard the assets recovered by the Commission.
Members of the committee are drawn from legislators and the Management Staff of ICPC.
Others are representatives of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), and Civil Society Organisations (CSO).
According to the chairman, this is for the purpose of ensuring due process and transparency in the disposal of forfeited assets.
“In order to push some transparency, the Commission decided to invite some external stakeholders from the media, workers, and civil society. For the external people, the intention is that the same institution will substitute someone else every year, the whole idea is that people should not become institutional,” he said.
The ICPC Boss urged the Committee to serve the country and ensure transparency and accountability in the entire process.
“Our mandate is to ensure transparency in the disposal of forfeited assets, and I urge you all to work as a team in that regard”, he charged.
In compliance with POCA, ICPC designed the asset management disposal guideline and formed a broad base Committee for transparency and Accountability.
Owasanoye also made it known that the Commission has written to the office of the Accountant General to designate an account that will be called Confiscation Account, to be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria.
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