Audit Ensures Optimal Resources’ Utilization and Curbs Wastage's….. Abubakar Diggi
Alh Abubakar Diggi, the new Head, Internal Audit Unit is seasoned Administrator and a certified Accountant, with vast experience in financial management. He bares his mine to Asma’u Muhammad on the restructuring of the Internal Audit Unit and the challenges besetting the Company and how optimistic he is about the future.
CCD: Alh. Abubakar Diggi can you please brief us about yourself?
AD: My name is Alh. Abubakar Diggi, I attended my primary school in Diggi, Kalgo Local Government in Kebbi State; a Commercial College called Ahmadu Bello College, Sokoto; I also attended Polytechnic Birnin Kebbi for my National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HDN) in Accountancy; I also studied at Bayero University where I obtained my Postgraduate Diploma in Management (PGD); I hold a Master Degree in Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria; I am also a qualified member of a professional accounting body, Nigerian Collage of Accountancy Jos (NCA); any moment from now, I will have my fellowship investiture because I registered ten years ago and everybody that registered after ten years automatically become a fellow; I have passed through so many accounting process. I stated working with PCHN in 1997 and now working with Kaduna Electric so I have experience of about twenty years.
CCD: Congratulations Sir, you are barely one month now in your new office as the Head, Internal Audit Unit, so how do you intend to ensure that all internal controls to checkmate fraud works effectively?
AD- Yes, I am one month now on this new assignment, I have started working but you know it is a new place for me, I am now acclimatizing with the situation I met; I am planning to see how the internal control elements of the Company would be put in a good use. For any organization, especially a profit oriented organization like ours, definitely the internal control element must be put in place properly. As we know, the internal control is a process of ensuring the achievement of organization’s operational efficiency through an effective and reliable accounting submissions and compliance with laid down rules, regulations and policies of the Company. So, whatever we do, we must look at this policy, we must obey the regulations; so internal control, and by extension, Internal Audit is to ensure that all laid down procedures are followed, accounting and other financial regulations are complied with; and all avenues through which fraud could be perpetrated are checked and plugged, etc. In the internal control element, we have activities that need to be check immediately like activities of corrective measures, control measures and detective measures; so this three factors need to be considered; when you put these things together any time you see you detect, you control and apply whatever necessary to checkmate the occurrence of the fraud.
CCD: How important is the Internal Audit Unit to the success of the organization?
AD: The
Importance of the Audit Unit in any organization cannot be overemphasized; it
ensure optimal utilization of available resources and curb wastages; In our own
case now, the internal audit is a very important aspect of the on-going
restructuring. Restructuring means putting A where A should be and putting B
where it is supposed to be, and when A and B placed in their rightful place,
the structure will diffidently work well. So internal audit department is very
important when putting this restructure in place. The also auditor checks,
identify malfeasance and make recommendation to the Management; these
recommendations are studied by the disciplinary team and take necessary
administrative actions against erring officials which is really helping the
organization by checkmating cases of frauds in the Company.
The Audit
Unit is a driver that drives the activities of all the other departments. The
Internal Audit Unit of any organization have process and ours is no exception,
we also have process. So we follow those processes like any other process,
people should not look at us as cog in the wheel of progress; for example, when
a worker apply for certain funds to carry out certain function, if he or she
submit a document for approval and an auditor mention some observations, people
tend to be unhappy because of the benefitting factor, some people may tend to
look at such corrective effort as an attempt to deny them of the likely
benefit; but the auditor and any other department for that matter are
working towards the attainment of the Company’s objective. This is the same
with other departments, we have our process like people in commercial have
their own process in delivering bills, the same thing in audit, we have a
process and must be put in place for the organization to move forward.
CCD: How do you ensure that out stations like Regional Offices, Service Centres and any other office comply with all financial regulations of the Company?
AD: As I told you earlier, the office is just being expanded with the Head now, I am very sure the Management is having plans to make more expansion, so staying with only 3 to 5 staff of audit cannot solve audit problem par say; the way I am looking at it, we need more hands so that we can reach those areas I have mentioned earlier; if we have more hands, definitely we would go and lecture them and even go to the field to see for ourselves what are they doing, so from there we can put necessary control. By going to the field to see their activities in terms of how they distributes their bills, how they monitor, cash collections activities and so on. So when we go to these Service Centre ourselves by seeing us definitely, they would know that something new has started happening in this Company.
CCD: What do we look for in a good auditor?
AD: Good auditor have certain qualities; we have statutory qualities, professional and general qualities. The statutory qualities of an auditor are a quality that an auditor must possesses, that academic qualification and must be a member of professional accounting bodies such as Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria or any certify body like ANAN and any other body recognized by the law. Then professional qualities for any audit to retain a professional quality he must have enough knowledge of theory and principles of accounting, taxation, economics, statistics, general knowledge of all activities that is required for him to possess the qualities; and the general qualities which is expected of an auditor is to be very hardworking, honest, impartial, tactful in carrying out his duties, have a common sense and must always maintain confidentiality that is whatever happen should be disclosed only to the people of concern so these are the some of the general personal qualities that an auditor is supposed to possess.
CCD: In what ways is the Audit Unit helping to block revenue leakages?
AD: Blocking the leakages of revenue is a duty of all staff. Audit Unit is helping by visiting the Area Offices and Service Centres and also going to the field; like I mentioned earlier, by the time Sales Reps realized that auditors are checking them from bills sharing up to the cash collections, they will all be alive to their responsibilities and if they are doing something wrong, it can easily be discovered. Likewise in our various cash offices, now we have even started unscheduled visits to do cash count of the money they have collected without them knowing that we are coming to do it. We have started discovering issues in some areas for now and the news is everywhere that we are checkmating the activities unaware which calm down a lots of people and I believe the leakages would subside by doing these type of functions.
Audit Unit is helping by visiting the Area Offices and Service Centres and also going to the field; like I mentioned earlier, by the time Sales Reps realized that auditors are checking them from bills sharing up to the cash collections, they will all be alive to their responsibilities and if they are doing something wrong, it can easily be discovered. Likewise in our various cash offices, now we have even started unscheduled visits to do cash count of the money they have collected without them knowing that we are coming to do it. We have started discovering issues in some areas for now and the news is everywhere
CCD: Any appeal or advice to the Management or staff?
AD: My advice to the Management and our colleagues from other departments and units is in terms of looking at audit as enemies; often staff from other sections don’t want to cooperate with us especially when carrying out investigation or avail us with what we want on time; some even see any action taken by an auditor like you want them to be sacked or something like that, which is not. We just want to follow due process; we have principles and general objective they should not look at us like a policeman or somebody who is after their jobs; even yesterday, somebody called me and said “am I at the police station” (laughs), though we are the Company’s police, but ours is to protect the interest of the Company. So we should understand that there are rules and regulations, if not we are not going to move forward. All staff should stand up and obey all the rules and regulations of the Company
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