Fraud
The Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examination Board (KASNEB) has announced its determination to support the country in the fight against corruption through the training of fraud examiners who will examine fraud and corruption cases.
About 10 Certified Forensic Fraud Examiner (CFFE) professionals have graduated from the post professional course that is helpful in building a career in fraud risk management and fraud detection systems.
Speaking after the ceremony in Mombasa, Chief Executive Officer of KASNEB Nicholas Letting said that the institution has marked a very significant fundamental issue where the first cohort of the professionals has graduated. Letting said that the graduates have successfully pursued the qualification which was launched in 2021 and started administering exams in April 2022.
He said they have filled a gap that exists in the integrity sector where all the investigative agencies need to have experts who have gone through the course. “The course was launched in 2021 partnering with a representative of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) who have assisted us to come up with this qualification as KASNEB and we have administered the examinations,” he said.
He noted that there are three modules for the course and each of the modules has three papers.
He said that the unique factor about the course was that it has a Kenyan case study chapter called Integrated Case Study Paper whereby students go through role modeling by coming up with a paper based on the situation in the country tasking them to tackle it as fraud examiners, having been backed up by legal cases.
“As KASNEB, we want to support the government in the fight against corruption. We are looking forward to the impact of the professionals on the nation,” he added. Chairperson of KASNEB Dr. Nancy Muriuki said that the graduation has produced graduates who would help the country deal with integrity cases.
Muriuki said money is lost and failed to be accounted for in the country yet there were many unemployed young people with some families languishing in poverty. “We now have people who can help us to fight corruption in terms of fraud examination. This is not just a career progression but a calling and a passion. You have to carry the spirit and mind the common good otherwise the certificate will not be useful,” she said.
Chief Executive Officer of Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in Kenya Jane Mugo said that she highly supports the programme in Kenya so that it could be tailored to the country’s legal environment. Mugo said the CFFE programme was an international course administered by KASNEB and the administrators have heavily benchmarked with the international bodies in charge to make it better and relatable to the country.
As a mentor and trainer of the graduates she noted that there were still very few professionals in the country under this docket calling for more to come so that they would be able to build capacity to fight fraud and corruption in the country.
“We are calling all the organizations to consider having certified fraud examiners in their organizations and dedicated senior members of staff especially to small organizations to add to the other responsibilities they have,” she said. She noted that it was high time that board members considered the inclusion of fraud examiners in their boards to help them fight fraud and corruption and also assist in achieving their primary responsibility.
According to Mugo, the International Certified Fraud Examiners under KASNEB now has 10 professionals that have graduated and 18 others waiting for graduation. She added that there were quite a number of other professionals in module one and two, yet to finish the course.