L-R: Director of Training, Office of Establishments, Lagos State Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions, Mr. Ayodeji Aruna; Commissioner for Establishment, Dr. Akintola Benson Oke and the Guest Speaker, Mr. Sola Oyetayo, during the opening of a 2-day training on forensic accounting systems in Lagos ministries, by the State Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions, in Alausa Ikeja, Lagos.
The Lagos State Government has put machinery in motion to fight corruption in the civil service by exposing key stakeholders to Forensic Accounting.
Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Benson Oke disclosed this on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop on Forensic Accounting for 50 Accountants and Auditors in the civil service, held in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
Oke stated that in today’s highly competitive commercially driven world, almost everyone is a potential victim of fraud and other criminal activities and that it seemed to be a cost of doing business and a way of life.
“The state government in its bid to fight against corruption and ensure zero tolerance has decided to train its workforce on tools to fight this malaise, which has made our country an object of ridicule in the comity of nations.
“The objectives of this training programme are: reduction of corruption to the barest minimum, developing appropriate controls and installing fraud detection response programmes.
“As we all know, Accounting and Auditing progression is linked with fraud deterrence, fraud detection, fraud investigation, and to achieve this, forensic skills is required to help fight these fraud and crime scourge,” he explained.
According to Oke, fraud and other crime had become the crime of the millennium as “it can affect anyone at anytime and at anywhere and it respects no boundaries as it weaves its web of deceit from one country into another.”
The commissioner stressed that one of the central outcomes of fraud was financial loss, saying that fraud undermined public support for government and reduced available resources to serve constituents.
He explained that with the advent of computers, the internet and complex accounting system, it got easier to perpetrate fraud which had been labeled the fastest growing crime.
Oke added that Forensic Accounting system could detect fraud easily and reduced corruption to a near zero level, saying that with its introduction into the civil service, it would help government to save more money to run government and generate more employment for the populace.
He said as an accountant, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode knew the nifty-gritty of the accounting system and what to do to bring transparency and accountability into the system, which, he said was the reason for the introduction of Forensic Accounting system.
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