General News of Sunday, 17 April 2011

Source: hector o. boham and sam rockson asamoah

Corruption and Fraud Audit Consortium (CAFAC) Ghana Limited

Announcing a new company:
Corruption and Fraud Audit Consortium (CAFAC) Ghana Limited

Today, Hector O. Boham and Sam Rockson Asamoah are delighted to officially announce their new company, Corruption and Fraud Audit Consortium Ghana (CAFAC) Ghana Ltd. (www.cafacghana.com)

CAFAC is based in Accra, Ghana. CAFAC boasts of a number of career audit professionals who have core competencies in fraud and corruption and other associates who are working with us on an independent basis; additional team members will be announced shortly.

Think of us as a group of futurists and foresight-experts, visionaries, advisors and idea-curators who intend to introduce a paradigm change in the corruption and fraud dialogue in Ghana. We believe that merely talking about corruption, and signing memoranda of understandings will not confront the problem of fraud and corruption in any meaningful way - that rhetoric’s are simply that - rhetoric’s, and paper tigers never really achieve anything of substance. The time for concrete action is now!!!

The following is a sneak preview of CAFAC Ghana Limited’s Plan of Action
1) If a private or public entity has a suspicion that fraud and corruption are taking place we shall use our expertise to investigate and identify the culprits.
2) If a private or public entity has actually identified a fraud and corruption culprit and needs litigation assistance we shall provide forensics accounting assistance and team up with law enforcement to carry out a vigorous prosecution to ensure that the guilty party faces the full rigors of the law.

3) As representatives of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in Ghana, we shall educate Ghanaians who are interested in becoming fraud examiners and prepare them to obtain their certification. This new crop of fraud examiners will be at the frontlines in the fight against fraud and corruption in Ghana.
4) As representatives of the Council of Petroleum Accounting Society in Ghana we shall start training the first group of Ghanaians in petroleum auditing and accounting. These graduates will protect Ghana’s interest in the fledgling oil industry.
5) We shall sensitize the Ghanaian population and the government to the evil effects of fraud and corruption through strong advocacy and education propagated by The CENTER (Center Against Corruption & Fraud) - the nonprofit wing of CAFAC Ghana Ltd.

6) Having personally worked in countries who achieved a large measure of success in the war on corruption, we intend to provide expert consultancy services to the government on how to establish an institutional framework that will enable and ensure success in Ghana’s efforts against fraud and corruption.
7) For organizations who have not invested enough time and effort in developing an anti-fraud and corruption strategy CAFAC Ghana Ltd will help in the following ways:
• Establish processes and controls
• Institute regulatory requirements and
• Empower employees
8) CAFAC’s Employee Empowering Programme (EPP) involves the following:
• Awareness training programmes that are realistic, enjoyable and interactive with case studies and real life examples to help employees identify the characteristics of fraud and corruption.
• Education about the evil effects - loss of morale, shattered confidence, investigation stress,
• Set the correct tone at the top by changing the cultural environment from top to bottom. Stop paying lip service by replacing simply issuing policies and codes of conduct with real actions.
• Managers should be proactive in observing employee behaviour that will be red flags for fraud and corruption e.g. gambling, living above their means.
• Direct cost (every dollar cost of fraud and corruption reduces net income by the same amount, hidden indirect costs (constraints on expansion, damage to reputation, etc.)
• Help organizations institute whistleblower policies to encourage anonymous reporting of fraud suspicions and incidents
9) CAFAC will also measure fraud and corruption resistance using the world renowned DNV assessment protocol.
Hector Boham will serve as co-founder and CEO of the company in charge of operations and Sam Rockson Asamoah, the other co-founder and CEO will be in in charge of financial and strategic matters. We plan to grow this company into one of the most amazing organizations in Ghana, employing six key principles: Reach, expertise, access, innovation, efficiency, and resolve. These are the values that will guide our work and make CAFAC unique. They are why we intend to fight corruption and fraud more than any other organization engaged in this fight in Ghana - and why we believe in real zero tolerance and not the lip service and hollow rhetoric of zero tolerance

CAFAC's reach
With its on-the-ground staff and access to a network of world acclaimed professionals in the fight against corruption and fraud, CAFAC will provide services with far-reaching effects to help organizations and governments especially in Africa to fight fraud and corruption and thrive. And because of its intended national and international presence, CAFAC shall always be one of the first on the scene in a fraud and corruption incident, providing rapid information in the critical early hours.

CAFAC’s expertise
With more than 40 years of combined experience with the running of nonprofits, non-governmental and private sector organizations, CAFAC has an extraordinary level of technical expertise that is backed by a network of highly skilled field staff and teams of professionals in fraud, corruption, auditing, and communications.
CAFAC's access and influence
CAFAC will work at the family, community, regional and country level—with direct access to policy makers and local organizations—to create lasting positive change in areas as far-reaching as
Corruption (conflicts of interest, Bribery, Illegal Gratuities, Economic Extortion), Asset Misappropriation (Cash and Inventory), Fraudulent Statements (Financial and Nonfinancial).
CAFAC's innovation
CAFAC will help develop simple, affordable, and innovative solutions to complicated problems.
CAFAC's efficiency
Every dollar CAFAC spends will be used to provide low-cost, highly effective, sustainable solutions to the cancer of fraud and corruption. Because CAFAC intends to obtain fundraising support from the public and private sectors, CAFAC will subject itself to evaluation by Watchdog organizations using Standards for Charity Accountability.
CAFAC’s resolve
Regardless of the complexities, politics, or the cultural issues at play in fraud and corruption, CAFAC can get things done. CAFAC believes that fraud and corruption are social and economic conditions that are not insurmountable. CAFAC is also driven by its resolve that there is no social condition it won't work to improve, no logistical hurdle it won't try to surmount, and no system it is not willing to challenge. The mission will continue until fraud and corruption is a thing of the past and society no longer suffers needlessly, anywhere—until we get to real zero.
We are extremely pleased to have been able to get some of the sharpest minds in the field of fraud auditing and petroleum accounting as follows:
• Hector Boham, MBA, CIA, CISA, CFE (USA and Ghana)
• Sam Rockson Asamoah, MBA, CITP, CPA (USA and Ghana)
• Trony Clifton, CPA, CISA, CISM, CFE (USA)
• Daouda Cisse, CISA (USA)
This proficient and competent team of individuals and collaborators will be supported by Project Manager Sampson Yekple, in Ghana, and (Secretary Jane Quayson, in Accra, Ghana.
The purpose of CAFAC is to provide our clients with a lot more firepower through intelligent and cost effective solutions aimed at answering this key question: What is the nature of the beast of fraud and corruption and, and how do we detect, deter and prevent it and ultimately how do we ensure that perpetrators face the full rigors of the law...?
For those who are a little bit philosophical about this, to put it more creatively: Which future do we really want to create for Ghana? Is it going to be business as usual or we agree that it is time for change!!!!
As already stated above, CAFAC shall have a sister organization known as The Center Against Fraud and Corruption (CACAF), known for short as THE CENTER. The Center will offer fraud and corruption seminars, educational workshops, think-tanks and advisory sessions ranging from 3-5 hours to 3 days. The Center will organize a 3-day Workshop on Corruption and Fraud in December 2011in Accra. Further information about the Workshop will be published in this forum soon.
CAFAC encourages all Ghanaians, both in the diaspora and at home, to serve as resource persons and provide CAFAC with information, ideas, suggestions and recommendations to help rid our dear country of all corrupt and fraudulent practices in our government, corporations and among the general population. Too much damage has been done to our country for far too long by greedy and corrupt government officials and therefore CAFAC will welcome strategic partners and well-meaning Ghanaians to team up with us to curb the excesses of corruption and hopefully eradicate it completely. We realize this is an uphill task but somebody must begin the process of helping to put the right controls, checks and balances in place to stop this evil cancer in our society and all of us must play a part in it. We encourage you to visit www.cafacghana.com or email us at clientsupport@cafacghana.com.

Dated: April 16, 2011