Certified fraud examiners have for years supported countries to reduce fraud and illicit financial flows. For Nigeria, the Bill for the Establishment of Chartered Institute of Forensic and Certified Fraud Examiners is awaiting passage at the National Assembly. The Bill, when passed into law, will deal with banking, insurance, capital market, judiciary and even legislative fraud.
President, Chartered Institute of Forensic and Certified Fraud Examiners of Nigeria, Dr. Iliyasu Gashinbaki says what is needed to tackle cases of fraud, especially in banks and other financial institutions, and what that means for businesses and economy.
What is the biggest challenge facing the fight against fraud in Nigeria?
The challenge with fraud is that career criminals are always ahead of the regulator and even ahead of professionals. That is why we always run behind because they understand the system and know the weaknesses in the system.
The Chartered Institute of Forensic and Certified Fraud Examiners will uniquely put on the table something different. It is different from any other law ever passed in this country because there is no law passed to build capacity in the area of forensics and fraud examination.
Will the Institute assist government to recover looted funds?
This body is going to assist the government rather than the government assisting it and the reason is very simple. First, the government is overstretched and the three arms of government need their capacity to be built and we are going to do that. Our professionals are going to train judges to understand the depth and technicalities associated with fraud. This is because if they are well trained, it will give them a deeper understanding of emerging trends and therefore they will deliver sound judgment. Also, the legislators will make sound laws and we will help law enforcement agencies build capacity.
The importance of this body in both the three arms and tiers of government is so germane that we think the charter will perhaps be the greatest gift the ninth assembly will give to this country.
What is your take on recovered loot and how they could be properly accounted for?
Another aspect is the area of recovered loot. The Chartered Institute of Forensic and Certified Fraud Examiners will ensure that recovered loot is properly accounted for.
And not just accounted for, they are not re-looted and reapplied. Another thing Nigeria can do and with the voice of a body like ours is to ensure the speedy recovery of loots because some of them are still trapped abroad and these developed countries are still putting in so many technicalities to delay the return of those loot to Africa. One of the things we must do is to ensure the speedy global action for the return of the loot, maybe with the commitment that these loot will be directed towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
How are you going to work with the banks and other financial institutions to ensure that all those insider-related frauds are nipped in the bud?
There are so many interfaces. Number one, I think just like the support we provide to the law enforcement agencies, I think the private sector will probably be the greatest beneficiary because in the banks and other financial institutions, you will discover that they have a risk management department and also have compliance officers too.
I am aware that the compliance officer of banks is not below the rank of a General Manager and that risk management is a department on its own.
It is also at an executive level. What we intend to do is to isolate, especially, these two key departments and make sure that we expose them to the best tools available in making sure that they are trained and retrained to discharge their duties well.
And of course, one important thing in this regard is what we want Nigerians to know is the training and retraining of whistleblowers. There are so many things in investigation that majority of the leads come from tips and that we take tips very seriously because it could be just one sentence that will break the case.
So, we will invest significantly in training and retraining whistleblowers. We will make that available to the public sector and we will train people from the public sector how to do whistle blowing in a manner that it may even never be traced to you. We will take certain practical steps that we know and once the professionals are kitted with all they need, they will be able to service this. For people that are working with the banks, we will also isolate those that are the custodian of processes to make sure that we train them and retrain them.
so, I can tell you that while we are talking about conviction rate is going to go high, I can also tell you that the level of bank, insurance and capital market fraud will significantly begin to go down, likewise cybercrime too by the time this institute is fully chartered.
What is the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Certified Fraud Examiners seeking to do differently with the sponsorship of the Bill at the National Assembly?
The general public usually thinks that accountants are either fraud examiners or forensic experts. That is not true. As accountants, we are mandated to keep and maintain records in a true and fair manner that is reliable. While the fraud examiner or forensic accountant looks for the minute details of fraud beyond accounts, to ultimately find the evidence that will stand the test of time and nail the fraud suspect. Also, the Public Hearing on the Bill for the Establishment of Chartered Institute of Forensic and Certified Fraud Examiners took place at the House of Representatives last month.
Is the Chartered Institute going to combat fraud scientifically?
The truth is that both Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) and Institute of Charted Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) train accountants. Being an accountant gives one an advantage but other disciplines like law, economics, sociology, psychology and so on are also incorporated into the fraud examination exercise. Forensic is also diverse. While we are using forensic accounting to dig out evidence that will stand the test of trial, forensic science is also used to get evidence that they use in convicting criminals. So, I will say while being an accountant is an added advantage, forensic is multi-disciplinary and the reason this bill is necessary.
The guarantee of this Chartered Institute to cage fraud and criminality is that this is the global best practice. In the US, the most recognised accounting body is the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and of course the globally recognised Associates Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
These are two major bodies and the extent of their scope of work is to maintain records of accounts that ensure reliability and accuracy for all the stakeholders. Therefore, accountants by doing their job does not necessarily isolate that entity from fraud because criminals are always ahead of regulators or any system put in place. That is why you need the special skill of a forensic expert to unravel the fraud. What I can guarantee is that this body will significantly reduce the quantum of fraud both in the public and private sector.
Is the Institute going build capacity for law enforcement agencies?
Regulators and even the people in the forefront of the fight against corruption have not been able to understand that we need to build capacity. For instance, if you notice, by legislation, we have the EFCC, ICPC, and even the police with the prosecuting powers associated with anything that has to do with corruption but we don’t have a single professional body in Nigeria that is chartered and, dedicated for the purposes for fraud examination and forensic accounting.
What we have on the other hand is so much money going into prosecution but what about the training and capacity building of professionals outside that will service both the public and private sector in ensuring that we root out fraud and criminality? That is where fraud examiners come in.
What is your view on the ANAN operation in the accounting industry?
With ANAN coming into being about 43 years ago, we have seen that more accountants have been trained. The college (Nigerian College of accountancy) has been established, now we have the ANAN University and also this institute.
ANAN in our own view is looking at professionalism from a development point of view. We get to a certain level as an organisation; there is what we called the maturity level. When you get to that level, it is no longer about training of professionals but about the economy, development of the country and what it is that you can contribute to humanity at that point in time.
This is because you would have surpassed the few people that are your members. That is why organisations like the Nigeria Bar Association have a strong voice because they are in the vanguard of sharpening development The Nigeria Medical Association and Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE). You will agree with me that the line that they are towing about development is not about who does what at that point in time because they must have passed that level. So, for me, we are open to developmental ideas.
Why has the rivalry between your institute and ICAN persisted for years?
It is well known that there is rivalry between ICAN and ANAN. But from the ANAN point of view i would not say that it is rivalry. It is rather that ICAN has consistently towed the line of a monopoly since 1965. They never wanted anybody to be in the space of accounting and we can see for ourselves that healthy competition is very import.
Don’t you think this rivalry is having adverse impact on the economic growth?
Like i said earlier, the view point of ICAN has been monopolistic and it is not about national development. For example, everybody knows today that if the argument that ICAN should be the only body of accountant had stood for example, you wouldn’t have the Nigerian College of accountancy, you wouldn’t have the ANAN University, you wouldn’t even have this institute which are all creations of ANAN.
You wouldn’t have a situation today where the majority of senior staff positions in public sector, especially, are ANAN-trained accountants. So, regardless of the fact that they have tried to impede development, I can tell you that Nigerians can see it for themselves that, that path they have towed wouldn’t have taken us anywhere if they had only ICAN. Besides that, we have seen that the development path has yielded result in terms of creating institutions.
What impact do you think ANAN has made in the accounting profession especially in terms of training?
Over the years, ANAN has trained over 40,000 accountants and much more would come. It is the same thing with the institute, it came into being as a consequence that Nigeria is spending so much money in capital flight paying forensic and fraud examiners from Canada, USA and all over Europe. They are paying them in dollars and pound sterling in millions annually to conduct various assignments just because we don’t have competent-trained professionals in the country that will do that. That is why we floated the institute. The institute did not start today. We have been in existence since 10 years.
