Over 46 accountants representing all government agencies converged at the Finance Administrative Centre in Pointe Seraphine, Castries for a four-day seminar, spanning May 30th to June 2nd, 2023. The seminar, organized by the Accountant General’s Department seeks to update the knowledge and skills of government accountants to the International Public Service Accounting Standard or IPSAS. Accountant General, Matthew Branford highlighted that the government runs the largest budget within the country for which his department is mandated to produce accurate financial statements.
“This means that we have to report a balance sheet, a profit and loss statement, a statement of equity of the government, and list down all of the loans and status of the loans and payables of the government. So we’re actually moving into this new standard called the International Public Service Accounting Standard, which is the recognized standard of the world when it comes to public accounting.”
Permanent Secretary in the Department of Finance, Francis Fontenelle welcomed the three facilitators from the World Bank while stressing that public sector financial reporting must constantly seek to keep abreast with international best practices.
“But there is always the need for us to review what we do because we are not totally diverse or divulged from the private sector and that is the reason for us being here today. The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has been revising their standards and it is incumbent on us in the Public Sector to ensure that we are up-to-date with the standards.”
Practice Manager, Governance-Financial Management with the World Bank, Joseph Kizito Mubiru noted that high quality, reliable financial information enabled by International Public Sector Accounting Standards is critical to enable the World Bank to achieve its objectives to eliminate extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.
“Promoting the adoption of IPSAS for us means that our support to governments to achieve all these objectives is facilitated. Reliable information produced by the Accountant General and on which the Director of Audit provides assurance, that’s what makes the quality of financial information. And it is such information that helps governments select optimal policy choices to address citizen needs. It helps governments to choose the most sustainable public investments in infrastructure, health, and education. It promotes the efficiency of government expenditure and reduces leakages and wastage of public funds. It also helps to hold public officials accountable for the management of those public funds.”
Four years ago government’s chat of accounts was changed to conform to the new budget requirements and to provide greater transaction details and source coding of the various transactions of government.
“So the new chat of accounts was designed specifically to accommodate the presenting of the financial statement in accordance with the IPSAS standard of reporting financial information and we have to be accountable. We have to be transparent. We have a lot of investors, persons who buy government bonds, and treasury bills. Government takes loans from the bank and financial institutions always want to know what is the financial position of the government. The only reliable document to provide investors with that information would be your financial statement.”
International PFM Consultant, Arnold Ainsley is the main facilitator for the seminar that introduces accountants to topics such as trends in public sector reporting, strategic overview of IPSAS, and transitioning to IPAS Accrual Basis among other topics.