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Uche Usim, Abuja
Members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) have recommended what they termed a potent three-way approach to the Federal Government in its anti-graft war.
That was the thrust of annual accountants conference organized by ICAN. The conference urged the government to adopt education, prevention and sanctions in its anti-corruption drive towards positioning the economy to grow in a sustainable manner.
The accountants also called on the government to address unemployment and poverty by creating start-up entrepreneurship programmes for youths and supporting them with enabling environment and funding.
These recommendations are contained in the communiqué issued at the end of its 49th Annual Accountants’ Conference in Abuja, which was attended by 5,653 participants from 14 countries.
The communiqué was signed by the President and Chairman of Council of ICAN, Mazi Nnamdi Okwuadigbo and Chairman of ICAN Conference Planning Committee, Queensley S. Seghosime (FCA). In the communiqué, the accountants’ conference emphasised the need for education through strengthening institutions such as revenue collecting agencies, the three arms of government, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, political parties and electoral bodies to regularly train and retrain their employees.
“Education should be given a pride of place as it creates awareness that enables citizens to easily identify where corruption exists,” it said.
It also advocated the creation of the necessary environment to prevent “crimes of opportunity” by ensuring individuals and organisations operate within the shared fundamental traits that are grounded in law, particularly appropriate and prompt payments of remunerations.
“Some of the agencies created to fight corruption appear to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem and have in certain instances adopted strategies that seem to infringe on the rights of citizens. The sanctions to be meted out on corrupt citizens must be fair and not selective. It should not be seen to infringe on the rights of citizens. These institutions and agencies should demonstrate independence from government interference,” the Conference added.
