Government offices saddled with the responsibility of actualizing and driving the course of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
As reported by Premium Times, the EFCC sent a letter of inquiry to the SDG’s office dated Monday, October 17, to commence the routine process of the investigation.
The letter of inquiry, signed by Ahmed Ghali of EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Command, revealed that the investigation would be conducted on issues bordering on money laundering, fraud, and abuse of office perpetrated by SDG officials.
Reacting to the position of the EFCC, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on SDGs, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said the activities of the anti-graft agency were normal while noting that the commission’s letter only interprets a routinary inter-agency communication and not crime investigation.
As contained in the EFCC letter titled, ‘Investigation Activities: Request for information, six companies alleged to have executed contracts under the umbrella of the SDGs office between 2017 and 2020 were stipulated in the letter.
These companies were, namely, Nurla Consulting Serv. Ltd, Value Builders Nig. Ltd, Metrics Integrated Solar Service, Jacodi Nigeria Limited, Hisense Technology Ltd, and Prismvisa Contr. Nig. Ltd.
As contained in the letter, the EFCC reeled out a couple of items needed to commence the investigation, ranging from documents of contracts awarded within the said time frame.
Similarly, the SDGs office was urged to provide certificates of the completion of projects, payment vouchers, and soft copies of the detailed document of the contracts awarded to companies.
To back its request, the EFCC said the exercise was in line with the statutory provisions of the law, which can be seen in sections 38(1) and (2) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishments) Act, 2004 and Section 24 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2022 as amended.
Meanwhile, Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s spokesperson, did not respond to calls and texts sent to his known phone number.
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