BY LAJU ARENYEKA

A NEW book by Ubani Uchechukwu Ubani has proved vital to all those interested in running businesses or in teaching business-related courses.

The book, titled Internal Control in Practice: Armour Against Frauds, Business and Financial Failure, was launched in Lagos recently and contains principles that can protect business from failure.

Apparently, as Ubani imputed, effective controls may not subsist without internal audits, inspections, investigations and procedural guidelines etc. He stated that all human efforts are never without error,even as investigations have shown that one third of employees of any given bank or firm would willingly commit fraud if given the opportunity. Hence, only the fear of being caught can stop them.

For him, there are three popular types of fraud: Internal Fraud, Collusive Fraud, and External Fraud. Antidote to these in his view should be prevention- hence he harped on the need for clear cut guidelines on procedures and processes.

Procedures and processes
He stated: “Fraud has wreaked a lot of havoc to the banking industry and contributed greatly to the demise of many banks. Apart from the liquidation of 35 banks between 1994 and 2002, NDIC in its 2011 Annual reports, also noted that there were 2,352 reported cases of fraud involving a total amount of N28.40 billion. Of this amount, the expected loss was estimated at N4.071 billion as at December 2011, which is higher when compared with the figure of N11.68 billion as at 2010.”

Throughout the book, the author emphasised that the three main instruments against fraud include having and maintaining high level of personal integrity and remaining transparent. Secondly, knowing your customers very well and third, scrupulous compliance with internal control guidelines, procedures and standing orders or general instructions.

The book is written and presented in a very simple and easy to understand manner. The style employed by the author will enable students and non-students alike understand the inner workings of the financial sector.