The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning through the Department of Comptroller and Accountant General, had over the weekend rolled out a two-day over days training for government comptrollers and accountants on the new change of Financial Reporting International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) 2003 to IPSAS 2017.
The days’ event took place in Kakata City, Margibi County, and it was held with the theme: “Preparing Financial Statements; Referencing the Legal basis”.
It was organized by the Comptrollers and Accountant General Department, with support from UNDP, AfDB, EU, and SIDA.
It seeks to improve efficiency among Comptrollers and Accountants on the new change of IPSAS 2003 to IPSAS 2017 for sound financial reporting through the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS) free balance platform across Ministries and Agencies.
Making separate remarks at the opening and at the closing sections, the Director for Accounting Treasury/Technical Services, Dede D. Sandman, a proxy on behalf of Hon. Janka A. Kowo thanked and appreciated the Senior Management Team at the Ministry of Finance and Development planning for the levels of support in building financial officers’ capacities.
According to Sandman, the training geared towards building the capacity of participants on an effective and efficient financial reporting system. He used the occasion to admonish the participants to make use of the knowledge acquired and be more committed to the timely financial reporting system set forth.
“The new changes in IPSAS 2003 to IPSAS 2017 is just an extension of upgrading your report on a timely basis and adjusting some financial instruments for sound reporting and decision making’’ he added.
For his part, the Assistant Director, M & E Reporting, CAGD Sylvester Weah Sr. who led the entire process said comptrollers and accountants have taken a big step ahead in a new change from IPSAS 2003 to IPSAS 2017.
“Today is also significant in a special way, because we have taken one big step”.
Weah further explained on how the training is intended to strengthen accountants and comptroller’s capacity by building on the existence of knowledge acquired over the years.
“We are hopeful that at the end of the day, when we leave from here, we will see the graph moving upward, and have more energy to report on time,’’ says Mr. Weah.
Reporting Accountants James M. Barbu and Timale K. Zizivily in separate remarks explained how Accountants and Comptrollers from spending entities should focus on the new changes of IPSAS 2003 to 2017 IPSAS.
