Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Investigators of Nigeria (CIFCFIN) has called on the Federal Government to initiate a comprehensive Forensic Performance Audit of all donor-funded and development-partner-supported projects across the country as a veritable tool to end Nigeria’s cycle of debt without development.
Speaking at the Institute’s 12th Direct membership graduation and Fellowship awards ceremony in Abuja recently, the President/Chairman, Governing Council, Dr Iliyasu Gashinbaki, in his address titled, “Forensic Performance Audit for Development Partner Projects: A Tool to End Nigeria’s Debt without Development,” said the audit should be designed to independently verify the level of implementation, trace the flow and utilisation of funds, uncover instances of misappropriation or abandonment, and ensure that responsible parties are held accountable.”
The CIFCFIN boss frowned on several failed World Bank-funded water projects in states like Ekiti, Bauchi, Rivers, Kaduna, Ogun, Enugu, Lagos and Cross River that had plunged the country into debt burden with no result on the ground to justify the investment.
But particularly irking, he stated, is the report published by Corporate Accountability & Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), which showed that Nigeria would be repaying $6.25 million yearly for 40 years, amounting to a total of $250 million, excluding accrued interest on the loan for the failed World Bank-funded water project – the Third National Urban Reform Programme – approved in 2015 to improve water supplies in Ekiti, Bauchi, and Rivers State.
“Yet a decade later, residents still rely on water vendors for contaminated supplies. This is unacceptable,” he lamented. Gashinbaki told the new members and fellows of the Institute that their work was clearly cut out for them in the face of mounting corruption and other forms of criminality in the country.
“You should see yourselves as change agents and change-makers that have been duly enlisted in the anti-corruption army that would transform Nigeria into greatness.”
Earlier in his welcome address, the Chairman of Professional Training & Standards (PT&S) of the institute, Prof Michael A. Ayeni, said the training had equipped the graduating direct members and fellows, with more than just technical skills.
On the impact of the training and his induction as a fellow of the institute, Pastor Matthew Folorunsho Kayode, an Assistant General Manager at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Co-Chairman of the NAICOM/NCAA Joint Technical Committee on Aviation Insurance, said: “I believe my selection as a Fellow of CIFCFIN reflects the culmination of years of dedicated service at the intersection of regulatory oversight, forensic accountability, and financial governance especially within the aviation sector.”
