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Allegation of diversion of recovered proceeds of crime: defect in the EFCC Act 2004 and the need for amendment

Allegation of diversion of recovered proceeds of crime: defect in the EFCC Act 2004 and the need... The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the Economic and Financial Crime Act 2004 to investigate whether there are defects in the 2004 Acts which enable abuse of the system by those who are responsible for fighting corruption and other economic crimes in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts qualitative methods of research. The research studied the laws and regulations relevant to the recovery and management of proceeds of crime. However, personal experience of the author in the civil service, security and law enforcement accounts significantly.FindingsThe paper finds that the provisions of the EFCC Act 2004 relevant to the recovery of proceeds of crime and management of recovered assets are defective. The 2004 Act contains loopholes that enable mismanagement and diversion of recovered assets for personal use. Although the EFCC Act empowers the Minister of Justice to issue Regulations to regulate the activities of the EFCC, the Asset Tracing, Recovery and Management Regulations 2019 the Minister of Justice issued cannot be used to close the loopholes. Thus, there is an urgent need to amend the EFCC Act 2004.Research limitations/implicationsNon-availability of data on the mismanagement of seized and recovered assets is a severe limitation. Thus, analysis in this research focuses on the laws and regulations to illustrates the defects in the 2004 Act. Also, the study could only use reported cases and incidence of corruption among the security and law enforcement to illustrate unsuitability of security and law enforcement for the position of the chairman of the EFCC.Originality/valueThere is no comprehensive work that examines the defects of the provisions of the 2004 Act that breeds lack of transparency in the recovery of proceeds of crime as well as mismanagement of recovered assets. Therefore, this paper is of value to the Nigerian Government and the National Assembly in considering amendments to the EFCC Act 2004. The paper is also of importance to researchers. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Financial Crime Emerald Publishing

Allegation of diversion of recovered proceeds of crime: defect in the EFCC Act 2004 and the need for amendment

Journal of Financial Crime , Volume 28 (3): 13 – Aug 5, 2021

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References (3)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
1359-0790
eISSN
1359-0790
DOI
10.1108/jfc-10-2020-0210
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the Economic and Financial Crime Act 2004 to investigate whether there are defects in the 2004 Acts which enable abuse of the system by those who are responsible for fighting corruption and other economic crimes in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts qualitative methods of research. The research studied the laws and regulations relevant to the recovery and management of proceeds of crime. However, personal experience of the author in the civil service, security and law enforcement accounts significantly.FindingsThe paper finds that the provisions of the EFCC Act 2004 relevant to the recovery of proceeds of crime and management of recovered assets are defective. The 2004 Act contains loopholes that enable mismanagement and diversion of recovered assets for personal use. Although the EFCC Act empowers the Minister of Justice to issue Regulations to regulate the activities of the EFCC, the Asset Tracing, Recovery and Management Regulations 2019 the Minister of Justice issued cannot be used to close the loopholes. Thus, there is an urgent need to amend the EFCC Act 2004.Research limitations/implicationsNon-availability of data on the mismanagement of seized and recovered assets is a severe limitation. Thus, analysis in this research focuses on the laws and regulations to illustrates the defects in the 2004 Act. Also, the study could only use reported cases and incidence of corruption among the security and law enforcement to illustrate unsuitability of security and law enforcement for the position of the chairman of the EFCC.Originality/valueThere is no comprehensive work that examines the defects of the provisions of the 2004 Act that breeds lack of transparency in the recovery of proceeds of crime as well as mismanagement of recovered assets. Therefore, this paper is of value to the Nigerian Government and the National Assembly in considering amendments to the EFCC Act 2004. The paper is also of importance to researchers.

Journal

Journal of Financial CrimeEmerald Publishing

Published: Aug 5, 2021

Keywords: Asset tracing; Fighting corruption; Lack of transparency; Management of recovered assets; Recovery of proceeds of crime

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