By Sylvester Thompson —
Dr Victoria Enape, Pro-tem president of the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors of Nigeria (CIFIAN) has urged the House of Representatives to give consideration to the forensic audit bill.
Enape said to rid the sector of quacks, the Reps should treat the CIFIAN bill based on its merit, like the Senate did when it passed the legislation on July 5, 2018.
She made the plea during a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday to launch the Institute’s free seminar for professionals on the application of forensic and investigative auditing to prevent fraud.
The president, who decried the unnecessary delay in attending to the bill by the House of Representatives, clarified that CIFIAN was not a duplicate or triplicate of any existing accounting body in Nigeria.
She noted that it was “wrong for financial accountants to regulate the preparation of corporate financial accounts, perform audit and still conduct forensic and investigative audit of corrupt, fraudulent accounting practices.”
“It is like the National Assembly setting up its executive and judicial arms within itself; or any of the other arms; and procuring the services of the others into its governance structure.
“This will always lead to conflict of interest.’’
She maintained that the CIFIAN bill was necessary to provide the legal framework for the registration, training, regulation and certification of practitioners in the field of forensic and investigative auditing.
“This is in line with global best practices,’’ she said.
The president outlined that investigative auditing was about working within the investigative process from the scene of fraud to court; and providing information and evidence for administration of justice.
She said the absence of appropriate legal framework for the regulation of forensic and investigative auditing in Nigeria was a grave danger to the integrity and safety of the Nigerian financial system.
“The first noticeable consequence of such a lacuna is that Nigeria currently spends hundreds of millions of her scarce foreign exchange to hire forensic experts to investigate corporate fraud,’’ Enape said.
She said the core practice area of the members of the proposed CIFIAN was forensic analysis of financial statements to eliminate material misstatement, either by error or fraud.
The forensic president also listed other areas to include; preventing assets misappropriation scams, cyber crimes, global anti-fraud and corruption compliance and enforcement, litigation support and investigation capacities, among others.
According to her, globally, professional bodies exist to entrench excellence, proficiency, discipline and specialization, and not for mere proliferation as alleged by opponents of the bill.
“CIFIAN is coming to fill a huge vacuum in its proposed area of operation, to cut Nigeria’s continuous spending of scarce foreign exchange to hire forensic experts.’’ (NAN)
