The Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, (ANAN) has tackled the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, (ICAN), for opposing the legalization of the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Examiners of Nigeria in the House of Representatives.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, (ICAN), told the House joint Committees on Anti-Corruption and Commerce, that it would not be forced into joining a body that wants to takeover the known forensics function engaged into by ICAN over the years.
President and Chairman Governing Council of the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Fraud Examiners of Nigeria, I. B. Gashinbaki, who is also a member of ANAN, told journalists that “ICAN is speaking from both sides of the mouth”, on the matter, stressing that members of ICAN were already part of the Institute, with ICAN as a member of Board.
He said that it was not clear again to ANAN, who is a sponsor of the bill, what ICAN was actually looking for, by opposing the Institute which it (ICAN) has been promoting before now.
He maintained that accountants were not fraud examiners, or forensic experts, ” anybody who still thinks this, is living in the past.”
He implored ICAN to reconsider its position and support the bill which seeks to fight corruption in the country.
The Institute’s President said that the body was not about accounting forensics alone as ICAN made it to look, but encompassed electoral fraud, certificate amongst others.
“Forensics is multidisciplinary. For somebody to claim that it is pat of accounting is ignorance”, he said.
Representative of ICAN Innocent Okwuosa, Deputy vice president of ICAN, in his presentation,insisted that, ” you can’t criminalise ICAN for not joining the new body”, since the law is seeking to criminalise anyone practicing as forensics and fraud examiners without being certified by the Institute.
Okwuosa, who said, “we are already practicing forensics accounting, they can do their own forensics examination”, explained that that the new law was seeking to make the practice an all comers affairs.
Chairman of the Chattered Institute of Forensic and Certified Fraud Examiners of Nigeria Dr. I B Gashinbaki who canvassed the position of ANAN at th hearing, believed that forensic was only for accountants was a misnomer.
He argued that the opposition by ICAN to the bill at the public hearing is a purely a mischief and the passage of the bill is an accelerated approach to the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
But, the Protem President of the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Professionals of Nigeria Dr. Mrs Enabe Victoria said that that the new bill is a duplication of the investigative professional institute enabling law that had been passed into law by the two chambers of the National Assembly.
She said that having two chartered institutes to regulate the practice of forensic science in the country would lead to role conflict and clash of interest and added that it would not augur well in the overall interest of the county.
She also said that the passage of the bill is tantanmount to abuse of the legislative process, practice and procedure as parliament had hitherto passed a bill on the same matter as the proposed bill is seeking to enact.
