Economic and financial crimes
have increased all over the world essentially because of the negative
deployment of Information Technology (IT) for private but selfish advantage in
order to put these twin crimes under
check in Nigeria, the federal government had to establish the commission
. The economic and financial crime
commission (EFCC) was created in December 2002 through an Act of the
national assembly. The commission began
operation in April 2003, when its board was inaugurated section 40 of
the EFCC Act 2004 defines Economic and
Financial Crimes to mean the non
violent criminal and illicit activity committed with the objective of earning
wealth illegally either individually or in a group or in an organized manner
thereby violating exiting legislation governing economic activities and its
administration and includes any form of fraud such as administration and
includes any form of fraud such as involvement in narcotic drug trafficking ,
money laundering, embezzlement, bribery, looking and any form of corrupt malpractices, illegal arms deal, smuggling,
human trafficking and child labour, illegal oil blundering and illegal mining,
tax evasion, foreign exchange malpractices including
counterfeiting currency, theft or
intellectual property and piracy, open market abuse, dumping of toxic waste and prohibited goods.
However, there
is a difference between economic crime and financial crimes. Although both
crimes are pandered Offenses with an extremely thin line separating them. All
economic crimes are financial crimes, but not all – financial crimes are
economic crimes.
Economic crimes
are those crimes that have a damaging effect on the economic and political
system of the country. There damage to the international image of the country
is more important than the direct financial loss. These include corruption, embezzlement of
public funds, take currency, smuggling, drug trafficking and so on. Section 46
of economic and financial crimes
(establishment) which includes the non –violent criminal and illicit
activity committed with objective of
earning wealth illegally, any form of
fraud, money laundering, illegal oil bunkering, tax evasion, dumping of
toxic waste and so on. Financial crimes on the other hand are those committed
not only with the intention of getting funds and financial instruments. These
include advance fee fraud, trafficking and counterfeiting.
From the
foregoing, it can be seen that, all economic crimes are financial crimes but
not all- financial crimes need be economics crimes. Whatever form they take, the objective is to
earn wealth illicitly.
The EFCC
mission is to curb the menace of corruption that constitute the log in the
wheel of progress, protect national and foreign investment in the country,
instill the spirit of hard work in the citizenry and discourage ill gotten wealth, identify
illegally acquired wealth and confiscate them
build an upright workforce in both public and private
sectors of the economy and contribute to the global war against financial
crimes. The EFCC is charged with the following responsibilities among
others
Enforcement and
administration of the Act in the overall context of preventing, detecting,
investigating and prosecuting all cases of economic arid financial crimes in
Nigeria
My observation
or recommendation on EFCC and ICPC. There is no much difference
between the two of them but it appears that Nigeria enjoys duplication of
things. How many people have they prosecuted and imprison to serve as deterrent
others. I have not seen their achievement so far. The merger of the anti-graft agencies, the ICPC
and the EFCC is not in the best interest of the country’s desire to
fight corruption. I believe there are many criminal cases for both to pursue
adequately without any difficulty. Government only needs to clearly define the
functions of each of the agencies, and to ensure that they are properly funded,
with their staff well – train and equipped with modern knowledge to fight and
eradicate corruption in its entirely.