EFCC Needs First line Charge Funding- Expert For any meaningful impact to be made in the war against economic crimes and corruption, anti-graft agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) must be funded through a first line charge basis. A forensic accountant and director, Nigerian College of Accountancy, Jos, Plateau State, Dr. Friday Wada stated this yesterday while delivering a paper titled “Integration of Forensic Accounting for Economic and Financial Crimes Prosecution”, at the monthly Commandant Lecture series of the EFCC Academy, in Karu-Abuja. He said direct funding of EFCC from the federation account was necessary to guarantee effectiveness and independence of the agency. “EFCC lacks the kind of support needed for the kind of work it does. It is not easy to fight corruption because a lot of risks are involved and in fact, your work deserves a lot of courage and determination,” he told his audience. He said forensic accounting is a specialized area of accounting which though derives its framework from accountancy, involves legal, management, auditing and criminology skills. “A forensic accountant looks beyond the numbers to see activities behind the numbers, the motives and relationships involved in the criminal activity with a view to building evidence that is credible before the court,” he said. Wada, who gave a historical perspective of forensic accounting, traced the origin of modern day practice to the aftermath of the Enron, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs fraud cases in 2002 in the United States. He believes that for Nigeria to make headway in its fight against corruption, an integration of forensic accounting in the prosecution of economic and financial crimes is imperative. The lecture is part of the series designed to encourage scholarship and improve the capacity of staff for effective and efficient service delivery. It was attended by staff from different departments of the commission.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 14:29:00 +0000