IT WORLD FG to deploy technologies to fight financial crimes – Minister

The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology will fabricate and deploy relevant technologies to assist in the fight against financial crime in the country, the minister, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu has said.

A statement from the ministry said the minister disclosed this when the Association of Forensic and Investigative Auditors in Nigeria paid him a visit in his office.

Dr. Onu said the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) has the capacity to provide the necessary forensic sciences and technologies to assist the association in its war against financial crimes and crime investigations.

He stated that the area of interest of the association was in tandem with the mandate of the ministry, adding that the ministry will be more than willing to fabricate the right tools to ease their tasks.

According to Dr. Onu, the fight against fraud and financial graft has become imperative if Nigeria is to utilize its resources for the public good of its citizens.

He added that Nigeria must fight fraud so that the resources of its treasury could be best used to provide quality education for the teeming youths, provide adequate healthcare, and construct good and motorable road networks and houses as well as to ensure the security of the country.

He said: “We want to be a truly great nation, a nation that is great, strong, peaceful, prosperous nation that can earn the respect of other nations”

Dr. Onu promised to support the association in the area of training and skills acquisition in relevant technologies to enhance financial crime investigation, investigative skills and fraud investigation.

The minister assured the association of his support and assistance in ensuring the smooth passage of a proposed Bill on forensic and investigative audit by the association when it is tabled before the National Assembly. If the bill scales through, he said, it would be a boost to the present administration’s policy of transparency and accountability in governance.

Earlier, the president of the Association Dr. Erape Victoria, said the association was formed to provide forensic and superior investigative skills, techniques and mechanisms in audit of financial records and fraud investigation in Nigeria.

She said due to the inadequacies of traditional auditing process and reporting, Nigeria had lost huge sums in the past few years to fraud and financial crime.

She said “the association is well -placed to fight the future ‘cyber war’ and corporate crime that can only be fought by an army of forensic and investigative auditors”.

She added that the alarming rate of financial fraud, and limitation of statutory audit were the stimulus for the birth of the association.

She appealed to the minister to assist the association in the application of science and technology in the investigation of financial fraud and other related offences.