As Comfort Olujumoke Eyitayo, settles into her seat as the 57th President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) barely a week after she assumed office, an anti-corruption group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, (HEDA Resource Centre) has asked the institute to sanction its members involved in stealing of public funds.
Eyitayo last week began her tenure as the 57th ICAN president for the next year and HEDA said this is imperative considering the disclosure by the Chairman of ICAN, Jos, Plateau State Capital, Bernard Alkali that some ICAN members were aiding corrupt individuals and corporations.
HEDA’s Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju commended Alkali saying he was honest to the realities of the Nigerian situation, noting that billions of public funds stolen by politicians and private individuals are not without the connivance of accountants. The group also called on anti-corruption agencies to work with ICAN so as to develop a national framework that will tackle corruption and prevent members of professional organizations like ICAN from providing the technical skill needed to siphon public funds.
According to HEDA, “Nigeria loses billions of funds to corruption every year. This has brought political and economic instability. Corruption is linked to unemployment, rising crime rate, violence and terrorism. Nigerians irrespective of creed, faith and ethnicity are victims of this terrible vice. Accountants must recognise they have an important role to play in making the country work.”
“We are glad for a top ICAN official to have admitted what we have always known. There is no way public funds can be stolen without the support and active manipulation of accountants who are members of ICAN, their professional body,” Suraju said saying its organization was ready to work with ICAN to ensure continuous training and ethics are further entrenched in the agelong professional group.