Daily Times Nigeria Monday, February 23, 2015
31 Interview
‘Cut wastes, reduce importation to save economy ’ We need to curb importation. We need to start attempting to do a lot of things internally and for you to do that, I think there is a need for us to have, maybe, a periodic protectionist disposition to things we do; we can’t be importing toothpicks or toilet rolls. Ajaegbu CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30
So, we created that fund and set it aside and the idea is to encourage people to actually whistleblow when they see infractions. However, if we don’t get people reporting infractions to us, there is nothing we can do. So the institute had never received any complaints against members in connection with the fuel subsidy scam? ICAN had never received any petition against our members over the fuel subsidy scam and we are challenging you to do one, since you, as a newspaper, are also investigative in nature. It is only when you test a system that you are able to find out whether the system is efficient and functioning well or not. It will be wrong for people to stay outside and imagine what ICAN is doing to fight corruption. The tribunal sits every month and just last month we sanctioned a couple of our members – we do not spare people when we find them culpable. But, we will not become irresponsible and start investigating allegations through the pages of newspapers, No, we won’t do that. This year, we’ve so far had two tribunal sittings and another one is coming up shortly. How far has the N50 million
fund been accessed? We just did that and the template is being worked out by the Registrar. But before now, when we think our members are being persecuted, because they took a professional decision. We’ve had to go to court to watch the proceedings; we are not saying you shouldn’t try our members, we only ask that our members get fair hearing and we’ve been able to make sure that all the challenges that cripple our system, including the judiciary, doesn’t flow down to how our members are being treated for saying that something is professionally wrong and we will continue to do that. Now that we have a structure in place, we will expand the scope of what we have been doing on that. How would you assess the impact of ICAN on Nigeria’s economy? Like I said, we have about 39,000 members working globally, not just in Nigeria. We are everywhere in all sectors of the economy and because of our training, we excel in all that we do. For example, I can manage Daily Times, because our training is very rigorous and versatile. Because we are in the system, we see the finances, we understand where the problems are; we are better equipped to deal with challenges in organisations and
that is why we rise in whatever sector we are, banking, engineering, just name it. If you see some of our question papers, you’ll think it was set for people writing Mathematics, because whatever we set out to do, we do it very well. That is how we equip our people to meet the challenges out there. So in terms of our impact, I’m not sure it is quantifiable, but I can say that it is very profound on the economy of this nation. And in any case, the economy of any nation cannot function without chartered accountants, not just accountants, chartered accountants and, preferably, ICAN members. What should be the focus of government with regards to prudent management of the economy? You can start by cutting down on the costs of governance and the rising local debt profile and the servicing of that debt is also encroaching on our cash flow. This is part of what is building up recurrent expenditure portion of the national budget. We need to curb importation. We need to start attempting to do a lot of things internally and for you to do that, I think there is a need for us to have, maybe, a periodic protectionist disposition to things we do; we can’t be importing toothpicks or toilet rolls.
There is a need for us to put our money into qualitative education. Whether we like it or not, we do know that the quality of education in this country has gone really down and without you having people who are employable, who can do things, how do you want to make things? How do you want to be able to produce cheaply and enjoy the economic multiplier effect of, maybe, a full employment, or at least a realistic employment level? What are the objectives of the tripartite pact between ICAN, NBA and stockbrokers? That pact is still subject to ratification by the institute’s council, but what the pact is all about is primarily because what we were asked to do by the enabling Act of the institute of 1965 is to protect public interest. The primary aim of our entering into that pact is to see how we can get the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, every other thing in that pact is secondary and it is still subject to ratification by ICAN’s council. Do you give special recognition to your members for excellence as well as exposing those who breach your standards? Yes, we do give awards and for those found wanting at the tribunal, we also publish their names in our journals. With regards to major challenges confronting the institute, what is the way forward? By going forward, we have to keep shouting that there is a need for us to improve on the quality of education in this country, because whatever they produce serves as raw materials for the institute’s certification processes. We also have to keep insisting that there is a need for us to strengthen the rule of law. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), for example, cannot just come to Nigeria and start conducting exams. It is illegal and there is no way ACCA or any other foreign body can cry more than the bereaved; they can’t take care of our own children better than ICAN. To that effect, about seven years ago, we set up what we called Special Students Funding Scheme. It was to address the perceived
gaps we saw in the various locations: South-South, South-East and in the North, where we felt that we weren’t producing enough chartered accountants. We have committed hundreds of millions of Naira into that project. Today, we are building about five to six lecture theatres across the nation: Obafemi Awolowo University of Ife, University of Benin, University of Nigeria, Enugu campus, North-West University, Kano and the Federal University, Birnin-Kebbi. The institute is also building a centre in Aba and we just approved two new lecture theatres for the Polytechnic, Ibadan and Michael Okpara Umudike University in Umuahia. ACCA or any other professional accounting body cannot do that. Those are the ones I can remember; we give grants to Ph.D. students, and we even give grants to research in areas that, we think, will benefit our society. We even have, what we call, Tuition Houses Support Fund, which is to support the tuition houses that are preparing candidates to write our exams, it is a grant and not a loan. No foreign body can do that; we know that we need to develop the profession for our children. So it is wrong for us to keep quiet and allow foreign bodies to collect money from our students to write their exams. Why are they doing this? It is because the rule of law takes a long time for it to, actually, deal with the issue. We cannot just go to the United Kingdom and start advertising for people to write our exams, without going through the framework of the law. ICAN is very proactive, we have what we call five-year rolling plans. We try and anticipate the challenges that we would face in the next five years and we try putting the necessary measures in place to deal with them. Our fears also would be to wake up to sudden unfavourable policy changes. Today, we are 50 years and I believe that long after you and I are gone, say, in the next 500 years, ICAN would still be around and waxing, even stronger.