Battling financial constraints and hardships in life never dampened Dr Vishwa Prasad’s passion for lifelong learning and professional development. Dr Prasad, the Acting Associate Dean – Research at the Fiji National University’s (FNU), College of Business, Hospitality and Tourism Studies (CBHTS), said he had high ambitions since attending primary school at Shastri Memorial in his hometown of Ba.
“At first, I dreamt of becoming a doctor by profession, but that suddenly changed after the demise of my father,” he shared.
“I then decided to change my subject combination in high school and undertook Accounting and Economics in my final years.”
“After attaining an arts degree from the University of the South Pacific and Secondary Teachers Training Certificate from then Fiji College of Advanced Education in 1999, which is now the College of Humanities and Education under FNU, I started my career as a secondary school teacher.”
In 2001, Dr Prasad joined FNU as a Lecturer in Accounting and Business Law and studied further for an international Diploma in Tertiary Teaching in 2005.
“I strongly believe that investment in education pays the best interests, and this encouraged me to further pursue and obtain a Masters in Business Administration in 2005. Being conscientious and determined, I completed CPA from Australia in 2011 and attained Chartered Accountant status with Fiji Institute of Accountants in 2012.”
Dr Prasad said he was encouraged to undertake a PhD in Accounting programme in 2013 and did so without hesitation.
His topic of interest was “The Relationship between Internal Control, Internal Audit and Corporate Governance, Evidence from Fiji”, with supervision by Professor Kieran James.
“In 2015, Prof James joined the University of West Scotland, but I was fortunate he was able to continue supervising me despite the geographical distance,” he said.
“I was also grateful when Professor Ruvendra Nandan joined the University of Fiji and became my Principal Supervisor in 2017. Since then, he has served as a great mentor and inspiration.”
Dr Prasad said while the journey towards attending his PhD was challenging, he believes that sheer determination and willpower contributed to his attainment of the highest degree.
“I am indeed honoured to be the first local PhD graduate in Accounting from a local university,” he stated.
“My family has been my greatest pillar of strength and my wife and son are extremely proud of my astounding accomplishment.”
Dr Prasad said his thesis was examined at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom and Waikato University in New Zealand.
“Internal Auditors have noticed a new emphasis on analytical auditing that involves process auditing, risk and control assessment, cost reduction opportunities, waste elimination and corporate governance effectiveness. This trend is generally called value-adding auditing,” he explained.
“The study contributes to the Internal Auditing (IA) and Internal Control (IC) literature and practice as a multi-dimensional construct by measuring IA effectiveness and IC effectiveness in terms of its components rather than being foremost approach of using a combined measure or a proxy variable. This study adds to the existing literature on the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms, such as the audit committee and board of directors.”
“It is expected to inform government policy makers, Boards of Directors, Managers, Financial Controllers, Fiji Institute of Accountants, Institute of Internal Auditors (Fiji) and Global Auditing and Accounting Institutes, Transnational Corporations engaged in business in developing countries, and International Financial Institutions that provide funds in different arrangements to developing country of Fiji.”
He said the study was the first to examine the relationship between IC and IA effectiveness and corporate governance in Fiji so that corporations were protected from internal control failures.
“Being a study of internal controls and internal audit, which are a major component of corporate governance in a developing country, the results are expected to supplement such international efforts to understand and/or reform corporate governance mechanisms.”
“As a study on a developing economy setting, it enhances the understanding of the internal audit profession’s global configuration. It helps figure out the current state of internal audit in Fiji vis-à-vis the profession’s status globally by highlighting the major factors that enhance or inhibit internal control and internal audit effectiveness, it helps stakeholders to outline key priorities for the development of IA as a profession as well as its advancement as a key function in organisations.
Dr Prasad also acknowledged his supervisors for their constructive feedback, guidance and support and dedicated his achievement to his parents – the late Vijendra Prasad and the late Shyam Kumari of Vunisamaloa, Ba.
At the University, staff progress and professional development is a key part of the FNU Strategic Plan 2021-2026 Enabler 1 focusing on People. The institution aims to measure this success by ensuring all teaching staff meet minimum academic qualifications appropriate to their role by 2026, increasing the percentage of teaching staff with doctoral-level qualifications by 30% from the 2021 baseline by 2026 and enhance overall staff satisfaction.