The Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property has disclosed plans to recover N87 billion bad debts owed the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) by developers.
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The panel, in a statement on Wednesday, said its Chairman, Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, made the disclosure when he visited the bank’s Managing Director, Mr. Ahmed Dangiwa, in Abuja.
Obono-Obla said the debts arose from loans obtained by estate developers and primary mortgage institutions between 2009 and 2016, according to the statement signed by spokesperson of the panel, Lucie-Ann Laha. He said preliminary investigations revealed that some of the loans were not used for the purpose they were obtained.
According to him, the loans were not serviced due to the bank’s failure to “enforce due process and proce- dures.”
Obono-Obla called on the FMBN management to co-operate with the panel by according it all the necessary assistance that would facilitate quick recovery of the debts.
The recovery, he explained, would enhance the financial base of the bank and reposition it to better achieve its mandate of facilitating home ownership by Nigerians.
Responding, the FMBN boss lauded the panel’s efforts in furtherance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign.
Dangiwa assured his guest of the bank’s co-operation in that regard, adding that FMBN was in full support of government’s anti-corruption war.
He cited some programmes and policies adopted by the bank in line with this position.
Meanwhile, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, of Enugu State, has sought the assistance of members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and similar professional organisations in his administration’s efforts towards entrenching fiscal discipline and transparency in the management of public funds.
Ugwuanyi said that such administrative principles of accountability and transparency have helped his administration to reduce wastages and leakages in the finance of the state, adding that the collaboration will not only “encourage greater public participation in both the formulation and implementation of government policies” but will also strengthen the people’s trust in government.
The governor, who spoke at the 2018 Eastern Zonal Accountants Conference of ICAN, held in Enugu on Tuesday, described the institute as a professional body that has contributed immensely to the development of the nation’s financial sector as well as the effective implementation of fiscal policies.