Bill to establish institute to fight corruption underway

A bill to establish the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Examiners has passed second reading at the House of Representatives.

President and Chairman of Council of the institute, Dr. Iliyasu Gashinbaki, who revealed this during a press briefing in Abuja, assured that the dismal number of convictions secured by prosecution agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the police will be reversed once the bill is passed into law.

He said the bill which is promoted by the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) will be the best gift the 9th National Assembly will give to Nigerians as a way of rooting out fraud and corruption in Nigeria.

He also advised President Muhammadu Buhari to give quick assent to the bill once presented to him by the national assembly to boost his corruption fight as well as one of his major legacies in curbing corruption in Nigeria.

According to him, the institute will perform differently in caging corruption and fraud in Nigeria, and the institute intends to create the Nigerian Forensic Academy. “Once the bill becomes law, we will have the academy affiliated to the ANAN University to build capacity of the tertiary institutions. The idea is to upgrade it to a regional university in Africa because what we are doing has never been done in Africa. We are combining two great areas - which are the fraud examination and forensics being fused under one canopy.”