PS tasks accountants managing Nigeria’s wealth to prevent leakages

Dr Marcus Ogunbiyi, Permanent Secretary, Career Management Office, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, has called on accounting professionals to manage the country’s wealth effectively and prevent leakages.

He said this at the 2023 Annual Dinner and District Award ceremony, organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) NyanyaMararaba and District Society, in Abuja.

Ogunbiyi, who was the chairman of the occasion, said accountants are custodians of public trust and should endeavour to uphold the ethics of their profession as they carry out their duties.

“Accountants are supposed to be trustworthy because they hold and control the liquid asset of the organisation and as such they are meant to be trustworthy, honest, manage wealth and prevent leakages in the affairs of government.

“So accountants should be officers in the service who can be relied upon and be able to identify areas of inappropriate spending and support government and make sure that leakages are blocked,” he said.

Also, Malam Tijjani Isa, 58th ICAN President, represented by Dr Oyemolu Akinsulire, ICAN Council member, said that the institute would continue to support its members in their various endeavours.

He,however,called on accounting professionals to abide by the ethics of profession and ensure that they carry out their duties with integrity and accountability.

“By our training, we are utility managers, we fit in anywhere and we perform, we get our colleagues and ask questions.

“That is why when you see us anywhere, we go the needed mileage and achieve the needed result.

“My advice to our members is to continue to keep the flag of the institute flying higher,” he said.

Mr Adewale Adeagbo, Chairman, ICAN NyanyaMararaba and District Society, said the event was aimed at recognizing and appreciating persons who had contributed to the growth of the district and the ICAN brand.

Adeagbo also called on members of the district to ensure they make the institute proud by being good examples in their places of work and in the society at large.

“My advice to members of the district society is to keep the flag flying, even though the district is barely two years, we are doing things as though we have been in existence before now.

“We don’t want to crawl, we want to fly and with God on our side, we believe that we will make the institute proud.

“To the incoming executives, I urge them to continue from where we stopped, though the previous excos laid the foundation, we tried to build on but we stopped at a certain stage, so we advice them to continue from there,” he said.

Dr Salisu Saad, Deputy Director at the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and the guest lecturer at the event called on Nigerians to pay their taxes as it was their civic responsibility.

Saad who spoke on the topic, “The Nigerian Tax System – Implications on Revenue Generation for the Country”, said that tax evasion had continued to impact the drive for infrastructural development in the country.

“There is a high level of tax evasion and tax avoidance, this is related to the way government spends the money because there is a perception by some Nigerians that there is corruption in the country.

“They believe that when they pay taxes, the revenue would go to other pocket that is why some individuals try to evade it, but that is not an excuse, we need to pay taxes as part of our civic responsibility,” he said.