5,000 accounting officers train in int’l programme

Accounting officers, numbering 5,000 and drawn from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and other public sector organisations, will, from today, undergo standard international accounting certification programme.

The training is to equip participants with the requisite skills in the implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) as part of the Public Financial Management Reforms.

Participants will undergo a series of training virtually (through an online platform) in nine different modules for 11 weeks in batches of 1,250 each every quarter from January to December 2021.

Each group will have nine weeks of vigorous class activities through the virtual platform and hands-on practice, followed by a week revision and another week for examination.

At the launch of the programme in Accra yesterday, the Acting Controller and Accountant-General, Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, noted that the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act, 2016 (Act 921) required that Spending Officers and Heads of Accounts be responsible for the public purse and prepare financial statements.

He explained that as such, the implementation of IPSAS had become necessary in various institutions to drive the change management processes.

Mr Kwaning-Bosompem said the implementation of IPSAS was to ensure transparency, public accountability and quality financial reporting and enhance efficiency in the country’s public financial management.

Additionally, the IPSAS would “guarantee consistency of financial information across jurisdictions, and improve the quality and comprehensiveness of financial information reported by public sector entities to provide credibility as well as acceptance,” he added.

These efforts, Mr Kwaning-Bosompem said, would result in an efficient, transparent and accountable resource mobilisation, allocation, and management of such resources to meet the country’s development agenda.

He, therefore, urged various participating institutions and beneficiaries to take the exercise seriously as the government took steps to improve public financial reporting through the implementation of IPSAS.

President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), Professor Williams Atuilik, also urged Chief Directors of various MDAs and other public organisations to give participants time to partake in the training.

This, he said, would enable them to have thorough understanding of IPSAS and also implement international standards of financial statement preparation and accounting reporting.

The representative of State Secretariat for Economic Affairs at the Swiss Embassy, Dr Hamza Bukari Zakaria, said the Swiss government, the funding partner for the implementation of IPSAS, would continue to provide support to Ghana.

The implementation of the programme is also receiving support from the World Bank, while the training and facilitation of the programme would be done by ICAG.

BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS AND FRANCIS NTOW