Fraud Examiners Say Good Governance Panacea to Economic Recession

As the country grapples with strategies to get out of the economic recession, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners have advised that good governance which placed premium of transparency and development was the only way of the present quagmire.

They also commended the ratification of the of the Unified Code of Corporate Governance launched recently in an anti-fraud seminar organised for members of the Association in Lagos where they resolved to up the ante in ensuring transparency in governance.

According to them in a bullet point decisions reached at the forum, mismanagement of resource ,arising from bad governancew as one of the factors that gave birth to economic problems in the country and insisted that the time was ripe for fraud prevention and detection measures to keep the economy stable.

Delivering a paper at the seminar on “Good Governance: A veritable Tool for Fighting Fraud During Economic Recession”, Deputy Director, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Mr. Iheanyi Anyahara said the corporate governance code could be effective in fighting fraud.

"Considering the current global economic meltdown, especially the recession in Nigeria, both domestic and international investors are likely to shy away from countries that do not guarantee investor rights nor provide for adequate corporate disclosures or ensure sound practices.

"It is therefore pertinent that regulators should create more stringent regulatory procedures to detect internal and external fraud, create penalties for erring companies and curb such practices. Also regulators should have the capacity to investigate and probe into the annual reports of companies", he pointed out.

Anyahara who lamented weak enforcement and regulatory mechanisms in the country noted that such were needed to be urgently dealt with to keep the incidence of fraud to the barest minimum.