The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), at the weekend, identified frivolous spending by various tiers of government and fraud as the bane of socio-economic development of the country.

The new chairman of ICAN in Kwara State, Alhaji Salaudeen Ibrahim, who made the observation during the inauguration of  new executives of the body in Ilorin, at the weekend, said the problem could be ameliorated when members of the body were appointed into government.

Ibrahim, who described ICAN as an important stakeholder in the nation's economy, said the appointment would enable the members to contribute more meaningfully to the socio-economic development of the country.

He said: "The role of ICAN in national economy is integrity and to ensure that we put in our professional know how to push the nation forward in terms of socio-economic development, especially in areas of curbing fraud, and excessive spending, which is the bane of the progress of this nation."

The ICAN chairman added: "Since that's our technical area, we want to apply that technicality and professionality to ensure we move the nation forward."

Ibrahim, who is also the director (Finance and Accounts), Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, said the association could achieve the feat, despite the fact that most of them are not in government, by offering pieces of professional advice to governments.

"At the state level, we offer advice to the state government and that's one of the reasons we want more of our members in government. At our places of work, we ensure we imbibe integrity and transparency in all that we do," he said.

Ibrahim, who said the new one-year tenure of the ICAN executive was too short to start anything new, added that the thrust of his administration would be to build on the success of the past executive, saying there was need to sustain the standard already set.