The House of Representatives has passed for second reading a bill to increase jail time for bankers that breach the asset declaration law.

Section 1 of the Bank Employee Act provides that “Every employee of a Bank shall, within fourteen days of the commencement of this Act, make full disclosure of all his assets.

“In the case of a new employee, he shall within fourteen days of assuming duty with the Bank make full disclosure of all his assets at the time of his assuming duty; and for the purpose of this subsection, a transfer or secondment from one Bank to another shall be treated as new employment.

The bill, sponsored by Francis Waive (PDP, Delta), was debated on Wednesday and passed for second reading.

Mr Waive’s bill intends to amend sections 5 and 7(2) of the bank employee act.

Amendment to Section 7(2) of the Bill seeks to increase the punishment for not declaring assets— from 10 years imprisonment in the principal Act to 20 years.

“Any employee guilty of an offence under subsection (1) of this section shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for twenty years and shall, in addition, forfeit the excess assets or its equivalent in money to the Federal Government,” he said.

In addition, the alteration to section 5 proposes to mandate Chief Executive Officers to provide movement of workers in the banking sector within 12 months.

“The Chief Executive of every bank shall once in every year, but not later than 7th January submit to the appropriate authority a list of all employees who joined or left the employment of the bank in the immediate proceeding 6months expiring on 31st December of the proceeding year,” it reads.

Debate

Mr Waive said the proposed amendment will provide data to monitor the movement of employees to stem the fraud perpetrated by bankers.

He noted that section 5 seeks to make sure that employees of banks can be fully accounted for at any time.

“It is no longer news that computer fraud which includes hacking of people’s accounts forms part of a majority of the fraud perpetrated in our country in recent times and has consistently been on the rise.

“It is also true that most of the online fraud carried out are perpetuated with bank staff as collaborators. And in some cases involving staff who is no longer in the employment of the Bank,” he said.

Uzoma Abonta (PDP, Abia), while speaking in support of the bill, said directors should also be classified as employees of the bank.

“Directors of banks, for this purpose should be interpreted to be employees of banks. We see directors assessing loans without collateral.


“Bank owners, anybody who is related to the bank should be dimmed to be an employee of the bank so that the directors of the bank will not be richer than the deposit owners.

“If you look at it, for example, most banks that failed, the directors will simply form another bank and then they move on and then NDIC will give people N500,000,” he said.

Ahmed Gagdi (PDP, Plateau), also contributed to the debate. He said banks in Nigeria are frustrating customers.

Speaking against the bill, Robert Tyough, said the 20years proposed by the bill ”is too much for a fraud case and the annual declaration of assets is too tedious”.

The bill was referred to the Committee on Banking and Currency after it was put to vote by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila.

inibro48: I hardly help people broadcast but I think the forum is great

BeeBeeOoh:
The bill seeks to increase the punishment for not declaring assets from 10 years imprisonment in the Principal Act to 20 years.



https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/509280-reps-mull-20-years-imprisonment-for-bankers-who-breach-asset-declaration-law.html

hotplay:
Why does the law not apply to them as well?

KillMNKnow:
Igbos