Business
FRC Tasks BPP On Financial Reporting Reforms
The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has been challenged to collaborate with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) on improvement of financial reporting reforms and enhancement of corporate governance in the financial sector in order to boost investors’ confidence in the economy.
This charge was given by the Executive Secretary of the FRC, Jim Obazee, during a visit to the management of the BPP led by the Director-General, Engineer Emeka Ezeh.
While identifying compliance with financial reporting standards as an important measurement of confidence in an economy, Obazee implored the BPP to collaborate with the FRC to achieve the objectives of the enabling FRC Act.
He specifically identified professional ethics, certification of financial statements, registration of professionals, attestation of internal controls and information systems controls and standardisation of the code of corporate governance as areas the Bureau can help.
He also implored the BPP to help in harmonisation of rules of corporate governance by furnishing the FRC with corporate governance rules within its own jurisdiction for codification in accordance with the FRC Act, which gave the Council the power over corporate governance, registration of professionals and setting of financial reporting standards among other functions.
Responding, the BPP director-general expressed the readiness of his organisation to collaborate with the FRC in harmonisation of standards, stating the futility of many bodies performing the same functions and issuing conflicting regulations.
He, therefore, implored the FRC to sensitise other financial regulatory bodies on the need for harmonisation of rules of corporate governance.
He also challenged private sector operators to stop collaborating in corruption, saying it would be very difficult for the civil servants to perpetrate corruption without the connivance or acquiescence of people in the private sector.
He also deplored the tendency to always exaggerate crisis in our financial system, blaming the western institutions for highlighting problems concerning Africa while downplaying their own failures.
The visit is a continuation of the sensitisation programme of the FRC, which came to being via the FRC Act in June last year. It has already visited the Central Bank, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Internal Revenue Service, among other regulators.