The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) on Wednesday reinforced the June 1, 2019, deadline to all financial institutions,
other relevant stakeholders, public servants and the citizenry to ensure full
compliance with the provisions of the guidelines already submitted to financial
institutions and relevant enforcement agencies, including the full enforcement
of corresponding sanctions against violations.
The unit observed that there had been isolated
comments from a section of the public which were in conflict with its initial
pronouncement regarding the commencement of investigations into revenue
allocations to local government areas across the states of the federation and
the need for relevant stakeholders to abide by financial regulations as spelt
out in the constitution.
The unit, in a follow up statement issued by its
Chief Media Analyst, Ahmed Dikko, a copy which was emailed to the media reiterated it warning that any contrary action to its circular to affected
institutions would be sanctioned.
The statement noted that "NFIU is using this
second statement on the above subject to reiterate its position that the June 1
effective date of the guidelines to all financial institutions and public
officials on the local government funds stands.
"The unit also maintains its understanding of
the 1999 Constitution that no debit is allowed on any local government funds unless and until the funds are credited
to and reach the bank accounts of a local government in any state of the
federation."
The agency further stressed that "the
provision of the cumulative cash withdrawal not exceeding N500,000 per day is
also firmly in place effective from June 1, 2019.
"We observed isolated comments to the contrary
in the past few days which in our assessment only amounted to willful
misinterpretation of the 1999 Constitution and therefore of no consequences to
the operations of the entire financial system.
"The provision of the guidelines to the
financial institutions was also on account of legitimate powers provided by the
NFIU Act 2018, and any violations of the said guidelines will be sanctioned
appropriately."
The NFIU had in its May 6 release reaffirmed its
resolve to “uphold the full provisions of section 162 (6) (8)of the 1999
Nigerian Constitution as amended which designated State Joint Local Government
Account into which shall be paid allocations to the local government councils
of the state from the federation account and from the government of the state.”
NFIU noted that its action had become necessary in
order to check abuses and embezzlement of funds meant for the local government
development which are often seized or siphoned by state governors.
Dikko said the move was also to avoid a
possible isolation of the entire Nigerian financial system by other
International financial systems “because of deficiencies in our anti-money
laundering and counter-terrorism financing implementation.
“Therefore, it is no longer possible to allow the
entire system to suffer the deliberate and expensive infractions or violations
by public officials and/or private business interests."
It specifically stressed that effective from June
1, 2019, any bank that allows any transaction from any local government account
without monies first reaching a particular local government account will be
sanctioned 100 per cent both locally and internationally.
The statement further noted that a provision had
also been made to the effect that there shall be no cash withdrawal from any
local government for a cumulative amount exceeding N500,000 per day, adding
that any other transaction must be done through valid cheque or electronic
funds transfer.
The local government councils have severally
protested to relevant authorities, including the National Assembly, in order to
devise another means where such monies could get to them directly.
No comments:
Post a Comment