The Association of Forensic and Investigative Auditors, AFIA, has urged the Nigerian government to facilitate the speedy passage of the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors in Nigeria Bill, which has scaled the first reading at the Senate.
President Association of Forensic and Investigative Auditors, AFIA , Victoria Enape, said this will facilitate the transition from the traditional audit method to forensic and investigative audit.
The association said the bill, when passed by the National Assembly, would enhance the capacity of AFIA to support the Federal Government’s effort to tackle corruption and prevent fraud in the system.
“Government has lost several billions in the past few years to corruption and fraud. Some country’s treasury, like that of Nigeria, has been emptied through these twin malaise. This is due to the inability of traditional auditing processes and reporting to identify and stop these incidences,” Mrs. Enape said.
Mrs. Enape, speaking during a training and induction of new members of the association, said while regulatory measures and internal controls in reporting requirements have helped to lessen the possibilities for falsified activities, history shown that indigenous employees could manipulate even the best control systems for personal gains.
Forensic auditors, she pointed out, were different from other class of auditors, because they look beyond figures in financial statement and focus on investigating the inadequacies and shortcomings in the existing financial systems with the aim of tackling them.
She said forensic and investigative auditors work as accountants, auditors, lawyers, police and other security agencies, stock brokers, tax professionals, economists, judicial officers and court registrars, criminologists, computer specialists and bankers.
The AFIA boss said recent developments in most parts of the world showed the growing greed among human beings to manipulate accounting facts and figures to deceive the people, hence the need to train and equip its members with advanced auditing skills that would enable them find out who, what, where, why, when and how fraud has taken place.
Association of Forensic and Investigative Auditors is the world’s leading forensic audit and investigation Organization and premier provider of anti-fraud and forensic training and education.
