The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice on Sunday said the Federal Government only pays whistleblowers
after a successful
recovery, not for mere tracing or exposure of suspected illegitimate funds.
Dr Umar Gwandu, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami on Media and Public Relations disclosed this in a
statement on Sunday in Abuja.
The Minister was reacting to a letter allegedly by one Aliyu Lemu, Esq.
purportedly written on June 22 on issues revolving around payment of a
whistleblower’s fees.
“The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice wants to make it categorically clear that one does not get
payment on account of exposing looted assets, but on successful recovery
and lodgment of same into the designated assets recovery account at the
Central Bank of Nigeria’’.
He said the procedure for engagement of a whistleblower or recovery
agent as it relates to the Office of the Attorney-General of the
Federation is as follows:
A Proposal is submitted to the Office of the Attorney-General of the
Federation, a Letter of engagement is issued to a whistle-blower or
recovery agent where the disclosure is assessed to have some prospects
of success.
“The recovery agent or whistle-blower is expected to notify in writing the acceptance of the engagement.
“The recovery agent or whistleblower is expected, upon acceptance, to
not only trace the assets but recover same and have it deposited in a
designated asset recovery account maintained by the federal government
in the Central Bank which is usually provided to the recovery agent in
writing’’.
He added that where these funds are eventually claimed to have been
lodged by a whistle-blower or recovery agent, the Central Bank issues
acknowledgement of receipt of the fund to the Office of Attorney-General
on demand.
“It is the satisfaction of the above elements that entitles the
whistle-blower or a recovery agent to a claim of success fee and the
payment is usually effected by the Federal Ministry of Finance and not
the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
“The role of the Office of the Attorney-General in essence is simply
that of processing the above-listed documents to the Ministry of Finance
which is the ministry saddled with the responsibility of effecting
payment’’.
Malami explained further that recovery is not about exposing the
existence of certain assets in an account purported to have belonged to
an agency of the government.
“It is about establishing that the funds in the account are looted
assets or illegitimately warehoused and following that up with actual
recovery and lodgment of the funds in the designated Asset recovery
account through judicial and extrajudicial means.
“Entitlement to recovery fees is for all intent and purposes contingent
on lodgment of the purported/exposed assets constituting the subject of
recovery into the Federal Government Recovery designated Account.
“This account is maintained at the instance of the President at the
Central Bank of Nigeria and the details of the account are contained in
the engagement letter.
“The agreed remuneration shall become due and payable to the
whistle-blower within thirty (30) days of the receipt of the
recovered/looted funds by the Federal Government of Nigeria and payment
shall be made to the designated/nominated account provided in writing by
the whistle-blower’’.
Malami advised that if the whistleblower in the circumstances of this
case feels strongly that there is any claim of wrong doing associated
with the alleged claim relating to recovery process, the whistle-blower
should consider lodging a complaint with the relevant institutions of
his choice for the matter to be properly investigated and or consider a
judicial redress in the alternative.
“The claim by the whistle-blower, as published by the newspaper, that
the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federal cajoled them into
signing of an agreement forfeiting sixty percent of the whistle-blower
fees amounts to criminal allegation which the whistle-blower is
encouraged to lodge a complaint about before the appropriate law
enforcement agencies for full-scale investigation’’.
