Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on Thursday stated that some banks were conniving with certain workers in government agencies to divert public funds to private pockets.
Lawan made the accusation during his investiture in Abuja as patron of the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Professionals of Nigeria.
The executive officers of the Institute who paid him a visit at his office, conferred the honour on him.
The Senate President said further: “It is not only in government agencies that we have this kind of attitude, even in private organizations.
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“So our anti-corruption agencies should go beyond looking at what the government agencies are doing. They should also look at what our banks are doing.
“Some of these banks, I don’t have figures or names, a lot of times we have placed implicit trust in them but monies are diverted and accounts that have no approval of the accountant-general to be opened are being operated.
“Before the introduction of TSA, we have had stories of hundreds of bank accounts operated by some agencies but of course, we know the limit the Accountant-General of the Federation has approved for agencies of government to operate.
“Whenever and wherever we want to fight corruption, we must ensure that we emphasise on prevention because corruption has been in existence, maybe as old as when human beings started to live on earth.”
Lawan said findings by the National Assembly had revealed that many revenue-generating agencies under-remitted funds to the Consolidated Accounts.
He therefore urged the federal government to explore relevant technology for the purpose of revenue collection by its agencies to prevent the diversion of public funds into private pockets.
