Akintola Williams Memorial Lecture (Continuation)

Between April 1999 and May 2004, Akintola Williams & Co. merged with two other accounting firms to create Akintola Williams Deloitte (now known as Deloitte & Touche), the largest professional services firm in Nigeria with a staff of over 600.

Williams played a leading role in establishing the Association of Accountants in Nigeria in 1960 with the goal of training accountants. He was the first president of the association. He was a founding member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. He was also involved in establishing the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He remained actively involved with these organisations until his old age. At a stock exchange ceremony in May 2011, he called on operators to protect the market and ensure there was no scandal. He said that, if needed, market operators should not hesitate to seek his advice on resolving any problem.

Read also: Akintola Williams: Memorial lecture

Public sector positions held by him include Chairman of the Federal Income Tax Appeal Commissioners (1958–68), member of the Coker Commission of Inquiry run by his brother-in-law Justice G.B.A. Coker, a Lagos High Chief, into the Statutory Corporations of the former Western Region of Nigeria (1962), member of the board of Trustees of the Commonwealth Foundation (1966–1975), Chairman of the Lagos State Government Revenue Collection Panel (1973), and Chairman of the Public Service Review Panel to correct the anomalies in the Udoji Salary Review Commission (1975). Other positions include President of the Metropolitan Club in Victoria Island, Lagos; Founder and Council Member of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation; and Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Musical Society of Nigeria.

In 1982, Williams was honoured by the Nigerian Government with the O.F.R. Following retirement in 1983, Williams threw himself into a project to establish a music centre and concert hall for the Music Society of Nigeria. In April 1997, Williams was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to the accounting profession and for promotion of arts, culture, and music through the Musical Society of Nigeria. The Akintola Williams Arboretum at the Nigerian Conservation Foundation headquarters in Lagos is named in his honour. On May 8, 2011, the Nigeria-Britain Association presented awards to John Kufuor, past President of Ghana, and to Akintola Williams for their contributions to democracy and development in Africa.

Williams turned 100 in August 2019 and died at his home in Lagos on 11 September 2023, at the age of 104.

The title of the lecture would be:

“Leadership dynamics: Current realities and way forward”

When we resumed proceedings after lunch, the argument went back and forth over the choice of topic and the content/focus of the lecture. Thankfully, due to the sagacity (fuelled by plenty of wine and champagne) of the former KPMG partners, we arrived at a consensus by the end of the evening.

What was agreed was that the lecture I would deliver would be anchored on research based on empirical evidence that would attempt to beam the searchlight on the current state of the accounting profession.

The “Financial Times” fired the first salvo:

“PWC Fined £15 million for LCF Audit Failure”

“Big Four firm hit for not alerting watchdog of fraud fears at investment group”

“Britain’s financial regulator fined audit firm PwC 15 million pounds ($19.3 million) on Friday for failing to alert the watchdog that London Capital & Finance (LCF) might be involved in fraudulent activity ahead of its costly collapse for taxpayers.

The fine throws a spotlight on the longstanding debate about how far auditors should be responsible for spotting and flagging potential fraud.

Read also: Akintola Williams’ Memorial Lecture (Continuation)

PwC, one of the world’s “Big Four” auditors, encountered “significant issues” through its 2016 audit of LCF, the investment firm that collapsed in early 2019. The Financial Conduct Authority opened a new tab on Friday.

It left investors facing losses on unregulated ‘mini bonds’ they had bought from LCF, with Britain’s taxpayers having to pay about 120 million pounds to compensate them.

The FCA, which in February banned and fined a former director of LCF, said that a senior individual at LCF “acted aggressively towards auditors,” and the firm provided PwC with “inaccurate and misleading information.”

“LCF’s actions and PwC’s own work on the audit led PwC to suspect that LCF might be involved in fraudulent activity. PwC was duty-bound to report those suspicions to the FCA as soon as possible, but they failed to do so,” the watchdog said in a statement.

PwC said the FCA has acknowledged that the auditor was not involved in the misconduct at LCF.

“We have reached a settlement with the FCA to resolve an unintentional reporting breach,” PwC said in a statement.

LCF’s collapse led to a damning independent review, opening a new tab of the FCA, resulting in an internal shake-up at the watchdog.