by crossriverwatch admin
The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Niyi Otunla has stated that with the adoption of the provisions of the International Public Sector Accountants Standard IPSAS, the country’s public financial management would be placed on the international map on public sector management, insisting that it will make easy accounting practices in the three tiers of government.
The AGF, who stated this yesterday during a 3-day retreat for accountant generals of Nigeria at the Tinapa Lakeside Hotel, Calabar with the theme “Towards a better public sector financial reporting and transparency,” held in Calabar, also added that the development was in line with the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan, geared towards speedy economic growth and development of the country, just as IPSAS would also lead to the preparation of Fiscal Operation Report for the country.
On time frame for IPSAS adoption, the AGF maintained that appropriate timeliness have also been set for the adoption of IPSAS Cash Basis by 2014 and Accrual Basis by 2016.
He said, following the last Federal Executive meeting FEC, in ensuring the compliance with its directives for the adoption of IPSAS, the FAAC sub-committee on the road map has ensured that Nigeria adopts the provisions of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) for the three tiers of governments.
According to the AGF, “this the sub-committee has done with the development of a uniform National Chart of Accounts (NNCOA) a key document used in budgeting and accounting, the users’ Manual for the NCOA, the Financial Reporting Format a Uniform Budget Template that meet the requirement of international best practices.
The sub-committee intends to harmonize the Financial Regulations of the Federal governments, the financial instructions of the state governments and the financial memoranda of the local government councils into one financial document and guidelines that will be used by the three tiers of governments,” he said
He noted that the uniformity will assist in peer review mechanism and ensure comparability, “the harmonization is in line with requirements of public expenditure and financial accountability framework (PEFA),” he said
Earlier, chairman, forum of Accountants General in Nigeria, Mr. Hilary Isobara noted that this years’ retreat was aimed at giving accountants the capacity to be on top of the maiden Financial Report under cash basis IPSAS come 2015.
“We have a major role to play in ensuring greater level of transparency in our financial report. We need to be vigilante in safeguarding the quality of information rendered in our report auditors must earn public confidence by adhering to high standards of professional practice in rendering independent and objective services.
“Our reports should be represented in a manner that will be easily understood by stakeholders and the general public without recourse to another document for explanation,” he said
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