2 Sign MOU to enhance capacity of SOEs accountants
The State Enterprise Commission (SEC) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which the latter would assist State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to prepare financial statements that are compliant with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
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Under the agreement, ICAG and the SEC will collaborate to strengthen the capacity of SOEs by upgrading the skills and building the capacities of accountants in SOEs.
The Executive Chairman of SEC, Dr Camynta Baezie, and the President of ICAG, Professor Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi, signed for their respective institutions at a short ceremony at the Ministry of Finance in Accra on February 29.
Why the MoU
Dr Baezie said the 2014 World Bank report on the observance of standards and codes (ROSC) stated that accounting and auditing practices in the country suffered from institutional weaknesses in regulation, compliance and enforcement of standards and rules among others.
He explained that it was to remedy that situation in SOEs that the commission was collaborating with ICAG to review and advise government on the state of implementation of IFRS.
Dr Baezie recalled that government had directed, through the Ministry of Finance, that SOEs should henceforth borrow on the strength of their balance sheets while subvented SOEs and other subvented agencies should be weaned off subvention.
He said under the MOU, training would be offered on IFRS, to enhance the capacity and more importantly, pass on the requisite knowledge to the accountants, to ensure compliance with respect to the preparation of their financial statements.
He said there would also be follow-ups on SOEs which did not comply fully, to ensure that IFRS compliance is upheld in the preparation of their financial statements.
ICAG
In a brief speech, Professor Omane-Antwi said the commission and ICAG shared the common interest of ensuring that the quality of public financial management in the country was enhanced.
He said the objective of the MoU was to create a formal basis for cooperation and collaboration to, among others, advocate influencing and promoting public financial management and also monitoring and evaluating the quality of financial reporting by SOEs in the country.
Professor Omane-Antwi said the signing of the MoU demonstrated ICAG’s determination to work closely with the government to strengthen public financial management in the country and also help to improve accountability and transparency.
“ICAG is well positioned to partner with SEC to execute its mandate of ensuring operational and economic viability of the SOEs. Both ICAG and SEC recognise that an effective public service in Ghana requires enhanced capabilities within the public sector in accounting and audit practice,” he said.
The Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, who chaired the ceremony, said the event was very important and timely and outlined a number of steps being taken to ensure effective financial management by the SOEs.
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