Bank’s assets declaration and corruption war

Recently, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdurasheed Bawa, made a declaration that the Bank Employees Assets Declaration Act of 1986 would be resuscitated to block loopholes created by bankers to sanitise the country’s financial system.

According to Bawa, the decision was taken due to the role bankers are expected to play in the fight against corruption, as the EFCC is mandated to ensure compliance with the Act. Section 1 of the Bank Employees Declaration of Assets Act 1986 makes it mandatory for every employee of the bank to make full disclosure of assets upon employment on an annual basis. The law under Section 7 Sub-Section 1 stipulates that it shall be an offence for an employee of a bank to own assets in excess of their legitimate and probable income.

After the deadline as stipulated by the EFCC Chairman, there are consequences that will arise as a result of non-declaration of assets by bank employees. For instance, there is a spelt out penalty of 10 years imprisonment upon conviction as well as forfeiture of assets beyond and above legitimate income and probable earnings of such bank employees.

This piece of legislation has been in existence since 1986 under the military. For a long time, this part of the constitution was rendered ineffective by those who ordinarily should implement it.

Bankers have always been aware of this legislation but the level of compliance has not been encouraging. In the 80s, bankers were handed such forms which they completed and submitted. But as it’s always the case in the country, the implementation of that provision of the law was more or less abandoned, and it was no longer considered as a fundamental part of the banking profession.

Stakeholders blame the failure of authorities including the CBN, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and Bankers Committee for certain abnormalities in the industry. According to them, these regulators rely on the banks they are supposed to supervise, to supply them information. For instance, they argued that the failed banks episode happened barely some months after the regulators had given those banks clean bills of health. This suggests that the information supplied by the banks may have been doctored.

Nigeria has been battling with cases of corruption and money laundering, with bankers and bank officials accused of being accomplices. Some monies have remained redundant in many accounts due to the death of the owners of the accounts, which some bank officials convert to theirs while leaving families of the account owners in penury.

This is in spite of the fact that the banking sector is no stranger to self-regulation, given its tempting, delicate and fragile operating system. As a matter of fact, the CIBN Act of 2007 has been regulating the banking system. It has a code of conduct to which bankers agreed with the CBN. There is a disciplinary tribunal that has the power of the High Court, which ensures that reported infractions, unethical conduct and indiscipline are brought before the tribunal, and sanctions recommended for formal prosecution. But one of the challenges has been the weak reporting system by bankers, leading to the inability of CIBN to take appropriate actions.

The spirit behind the Act of 1986 is to make clear, the financial standing of bank employees at the time of employment, and after years of service, in a bid to ascertain that their legitimate earnings are commensurate with their current lifestyles. This is coming on the heels of allegations that some bankers are direct beneficiaries of fraudulent transactions that are carried out in the bank.

What is common knowledge is the asset declaration by public officers including civil servants, politically exposed persons and those who work in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). They are required to declare their assets every four years. For political officeholders, upon their election or appointment, before they assume office, they are supposed to declare their assets at the point of entry and also at the point of exit. This declaration is done on oath. In other words, there is execution and attestation before a High Court or some other superior officer of the law. The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), among others, are already covered by the Code of Conduct Act with regard to the declaration of their assets.

As it stands, financial experts believe that the impression created by the directive to bankers to comply with the pre-existing piece of legislation amounts to stigmatisation and also isolates bank employees, which puts them in the limelight. In other words, there is the belief that the revisiting of the Act of 1986 encourages the policy of isolation that is causing apprehension in the industry. There are concerns that the Act may cause enrolment into the banking profession to further go down as a result of stigmatisation.

However, some stakeholders caution against the drama about stigmatisation, arguing that a lot of bankers, from the highest cadre to the lowest level, are living above their means. According to them, an average banker even from their early point of calling, cuts corners by conniving with customers that want to beat the system. They insist that for every major corruption, there is a banker that has facilitated the transaction.

It is laudable that the EFCC is trying to use the Act for good reasons. But the worry is that the banks essentially are not owned by the government per se although the government has shares in them. Banks are largely privatedriven.

More importantly, there are existing laws that can check illicit enrichment. Article 20 of the UN Convention Against Corruption is explicit on this. Section 7 of the EFCC Act empowers EFCC to investigate persons whose lifestyles are not commensurate with their means of income. It is believed in certain quarters that the assets of this country have been plundered the most by politically exposed persons, many of whom remain untouchable. As such, EFCC has been accused of not being fair and even-handed in its mandate on tackling public sector corruption including false declaration.

If the banking sector is sanitised, it will have a ripple effect on all other sectors of the economy. All these measures are taken to strengthen the fight against corruption, and not to stigmatise the banking profession or portray it as the scapegoat within the system. Besides, the banking career is not a roguish profession. Some bankers are at the forefront of exposing some of the mega corruption issues that we have seen the EFCC making headway.

Part of the essence of this law is to ensure that the country is free from financial crimes, and also to block the loopholes being exploited by unscrupulous players in the sector to undermine the national economy through money laundering and illicit financial flows.

While it is hoped that the Act of 1986 is a sincere attempt at sanitising the system, there should be a platform created to report thresholds of deposits on a daily basis, and the regulators should be able to access it to know the declarations made. This makes for easy reference to what has been declared as legitimate income to check those living above their means.

Moses, a researcher, sent this piece from Lagos