The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked civil society organisations in the country to pay more attention to the implementation of social investment programmes in the country to ensure that the benefits get to the people that the programmes are meant to serve.

The Commission’s Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, gave the charge on Tuesday, September 24, 2014 in a goodwill message at the 15th Anti-Corruption Situation Room organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) in Kaduna, with the theme, “Corruption And Its Threat To Peaceful Coexistence”.

Mr. Uwujaren, who represented the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, observed that the Commission’s anti-corruption effort was driven by an overarching commitment to peace building, by ensuring that resources meant for public good are not stolen.

He however observed that the Commission had received complaints about the implementation of the social investment schemes, noting that there was a case in the Anchor Borrowers Scheme investigated in the Gombe office of the Commission in which sand were bagged and supplied in place of fertilizer.

He said that in order not to create “crises from a crisis situation”, it is important for civil society organisations to play more active roles in tracking the implementation of the programmes so that the people can get the full benefit.

According to him, “The nation cannot afford a situation in which these programmes go the way of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), an international agency whose impact is yet to be fully felt by the people of the Niger Delta despite huge resource allocation over the years.”