The Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors of Nigeria (CIFIAN) has denied claims of being established to duplicate accounting body, insisting that their work was within the investigative process from the scene of fraud to court.
They maintained that their mandate covers providing information and evidence for administration of justice and to ensure that the courts are presented with the best evidence and reliable witnesses.
The CIFIAN President, Victoria Enape during a press conference at the commencement of a free training program forensic Auditors in Abuja, pointed out that 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, in line with global best practices.
Enape who expressed worry over the unnecessary delay of the proposed CIFIAN bill by the House of Representative that was already passed by the Nigerian Senate said, “It is important to clarify that CIFIAN is neither an accountancy body nor is it coming as duplicate or triplicate of existing accountancy bodies in Nigeria”.
She pointed out that the core practice areas of CIFIAN are forensic analysis of financial statement to eliminate financial misstatement, whether caused by error or fraud, thereby preventing assets misappropriation scams, cyber crimes, global anti-fraud and corruption compliance and enforcement.
Enape stated that it was wrong for financial accountants to regulate the preparation of corporate financial accounts, audit the account as well as conduct forensic and investigative audit of corruption and fraudulent accounting practice.She maintained that Nigerian laws have been helpless in the area of liquidated banks in Nigeria which were audited by some accounting firms because no acts empowered them to carry out fraud investigation.
She noted that CIFIAN is an anti-fraud organization saddled with the responsibility of providing skills to professionals from science and technology fields in order to join the presidency to fight corruption.
The President maintained that the body has the responsibility of using digital technology to fight corruption in place of analogue, in line with global best practice pointing out that fraudsters have engage in digital technologies to perpetrate fraud.She noted that the Institute is flagging off the free training for all relevant professionals on the use of science and technology for prevention of fraud, corruption and cyber crime in Nigeria.
Source: TheGuardian
