The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has stated that public sector corruption is the greatest problem of the country.

According to him, procurement and contract fraud accounted for 90 per cent of Nigeria’s corruption and fraud issues.

A statement on Friday by EFCC’s spokesman, Dele Oyewale, said Olukoyede disclosed this during a meeting with a delegation of the management team of the Bureau of Public Procurement, led by its newly-appointed Director General, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, at the commission’s headquarters.

“In the EFCC, we handle both private and public sector fraud. When it comes to the public sector, which is one of our major problems in Nigeria, we discovered that contract and procurement fraud takes more than 90 per cent of the volume of public sector fraud. And if you look at it, they range from commingling, contract splitting and all forms of shenanigans all over the place.

“Infrastructure-wise and all other developmental problems are attributable to contract and procurement fraud. It lies with you and with me to make a change. If we can work together, we will be able to leave this country better than we met it”, he was quoted as saying.

Olukoyede further harped on the need for enhanced collaboration between the EFCC and the BPP in many areas, especially in project implementation and monitoring.

Earlier in his remarks, Adedokun disclosed that the visit was to assure the EFCC and Nigerians that the bureau under his leadership was on a mission for a rebirth.

“We are here to reassure you and your team that we are committed to making your job easier. We are here to reassure the 220 million Nigerians that they can go to sleep when it comes to how procurement is being done.

“We want to see that the EFCC can trust our documents without having to doubt. Documents that you can trust in your decision-making, in your investigation about fraud-related issues and procurement. We are here because we want to be open in terms of what we do and how we do it. We want to give Nigerians the assurance that it’s no longer business as usual. And we have started,” he said.

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