The Society for Forensic Accounting and Fraud Prevention (SFAFP) has stated its determination to prevent fraud and corruption in Nigeria by refocusing from fraud auditing to corruption auditing.
This was revealed ahead of the Society’s year 2020 Proficiency Training on Forensic Accounting, Fraud Prevention and Management which begins May and runs till August 2020 while induction of new members for the year is in four batches: March 28, 2020, June 20, 2020, August. 22, 2020, and November 24, 2020.
Prof. Suleiman Aruwa, a board member of SFAFP said fraud has traces but corruption traces cannot even be seen.
“So we are focusing on a very new horizon that people are not even looking at. The key problem we have currently is lack of diligent investigation and prosecution and because of that we are currently engaging the ICPC, the EFCC and the Code of Conduct Bureau.”
The Society, Aruwa said, is helping governmental units strengthen their systems “so that we can even prevent fraud in the first instance. Prevention is the issue. I can tell you that in developed economies there are more corruption but the system would not allow them to slip. So we are faced with first and foremost in building systems that will not even allow these breaches; that will make it difficult for you to commit any form of fraud.” He also revealed that the Society is “creating the necessary awareness among governmental sectors because that is where we really have most of the problems of corruption we are talking about.”
Dr. Abuchi Ogbuju, SFAFP’s Executive Secretary blamed the lapses in the anti-graft war on poor investigation and prosecution. “Most times they put the cart before the horse.” he said, insisting that arresting a suspect before investigation was wrong.
“What you have to do is thorough investigation and according to the law. There is what is called chain of custody in forensic. There are places to keep offenders; when you break any of those rules, you are messing your case up.”
He noted that the deployment of Forensic ideas and forensic tools working with data fully analysed and fully comprehended will increase fraud detection to between 90-99 per cent.
“So you leave little or no room for a perpetrator or a suspect to get a way because the facts are there.”
He said with the involvement forensic experts in investigations of fraud, shredded and burnt materials can be decoded.