Abdulrasheed Bawa

By Gabriel Ewepu

A firm called T&T CAL Group, weekend, urged the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa,  to collaborate with forensic auditors in the renewed fight against corruption in the country.

Speaking on the appointment and challenges ahead of Bawa, the Chairman, T&T CALGroup, Dr Thaddaeus Thompson, in a congratulatory message said the task before the Bawa-led EFCC is enormous because there is high expectation from him while some are predicting failure this early into his administration.

According to Thompson he (Bawa) has an impressive record on his efforts against white-collar crime and corruption in general, which he will always support such progressive efforts.

He said: “I congratulate Abdulrasheed Bawa for his newly appointed post to head fight against crime and corruption practices in Nigeria.

“As Chairman of the T&T CAL Group Business Solutions organization based in the United States and founded by a Nigerian, my natural reaction to such good news is to congratulate and add a word or two of advice for the new boss.

“It is commonplace to expert well-wishers pouring out commentaries and advices as they congratulate a newly appointed official.

“Oftentimes, appointees embrace the warm commentaries and ignore the advices attached to them. Nigerians have lived under the tentacles of the “corruption virus” ever since independence and are totally drained by its wicked and treacherous effects.

“Mr Bawa is said to have an impressive record for his efforts against white-collar crime and corruption, in general. I have always supported progressive efforts until I am proved otherwise.

“My advice to the newly appointed boss of EFCC is that he should understand firstly that well-wishers in the Diaspora and the younger generation in Nigeria are excited about the direction of the “New Nigeria,” that seems prepared, as never before, to bury corruption alive.

“If this is the goal of the new boss, then he must first separate himself from a system that he has been part of for almost a decade.”

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He further stated, “If Mr Bawa can remind himself that he is a product of a system that he has fought against, and now he is assigned to fix, and not just head it, he will be successful.

“If the goal of his appointment is to change the landscape, I would advice that he (the EFCC Boss) immediately interjects the mechanism of checks and balances, which would mean outsourcing most of the task to investigative auditors specialized in forensic and white-collar fraud.

“This is the litmus test as to the seriousness of the newly appointed boss. In the United States and Europe leaders in corporate and government leadership use third-party auditing companies to independently monitor and audit the activities of the company, ministries, departments and agencies, respectively.”

He also warned that, “Devoid of this, there will be no changes and failure is inevitable .T&T CALGroup is affiliated with corruption-fighting organizations in Nigeria and around the globe staffed with forensic investigations and white-collar crime experts that could effectively and efficiently monitor the performance of the ministries, departments, and agencies including the EFCC itself.

“And we are ready to assist the EFCC in its efforts. Without a neutral and external monitoring system, success will be nearly impossible.”