ACCA Pledges To Assist FG In Tackling Public Sector Accounting Gaps

An accounting body, The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, ACCA, on Thursday said it would collaborate with the Federal Government of Nigeria so as to tackle some gaps in the public sector accounting.

The body also called on professional accountants to take chart in the current reforms being done by the government in the management of public finances.

The Head of ACCA in Nigeria, Mr Tom Isibor disclosed these in Abuja while speaking at a forum with finance and human resource directors I Abuja.

The event which was themed “Driving collaboration to develop finance capacities in the public sector.”

He further said there was a need for professional accountants to champion financial management reforms in the public sector as it would enable the government to institutionalise fiscal discipline, transparency, probity and accountability in the management of public finances.

“Our strategy in ACCA is to develop partnership and we work with our key partners, He said.

“What we want to achieve from this meeting is to understand what are the gaps in the public sector and how we can work together to address those gaps.

“Many of the participants at this event have acknowledged that we have a capacity gap and we need to close this. It might be tough but we believe it’s not insurmountable. It is from knowing where the gaps are that we can be able to resolve them.”

Also speaking during an interview on the sidelines of the event, the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Ibrahim Arabi said that the move by the ACCA to tackle accounting gaps in the public sector would further strengthen the public financial management reforms.

He said, “The BPSR has developed a document called the National Strategy for Public Service Reforms and one the aspirations of the document is getting the Nigeria public sector to be among the first 20 economies in the world by 2025.

“It is impossible for government alone to drive this programme based on the mordern trend in governance. Nigeria trapped in low growth path, says Moody’s

“So the coming in of organisation like ACCA to collaborate with government in improving the quality of service delivery will lead to the full actualisation of the aspirations of our national strategy on public sector reforms.”

He said the BPSR would work with ACCA to further strengthen the reforms in the public sector particularly in the area of ethics and professionalism.

Mr Anthony Ayine, the Auditor-General for the Federation, said that his office would collaborate with ACCA to strengthen public sector audit.

This, he said, was very important to enable accountants to regain trust due to the poor perception from the public about the tendency of members of the profession to commit fraud.