Public financial management (PFM) expert and chartered accountant Eric Oduro Osae has called on accountants to, at all times, be interested in fair reporting.
“I want to appeal to my colleagues – let us be interested in what is happening within the public sector space, because we operate within the public sector space. No private sector can operate in isolation. The public sector creates the enabling environment for you to do business, and as accountants we should be interested in fair reporting,” he appealed.
According to him, the challenges in getting state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to prepare their accounts regularly remains a source of great concern.
He made these comments during a virtual Public Financial Management Forum organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG) on the topic ‘Post 2023 mid-year budget review and matters arising’. The forum engaged experts within PFM to dialogue on revenue generation and financial reporting issues, among others.
The Vice President of ICAG, Augustine Addo, for his part, called on accountants within the various government agencies to stick to the ethics of the profession, by ensuring that right things are done at all times.
Speaking on the 2023 mid-year budget review which was presented at the end of last July, Chief Director at the Ministry of Finance, Eva Mends, said it was required to align with all commitments made to the International Monetary Fund and as well as the changes that have occurred in the economy since November 2022, including the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
She noted that the mid-year budget review sought to put in place certain strategies meant to reduce government arrears and turning around the cocoa and energy sectors to support the country’s economic recovery.
“This mid-year review is quite different from the mid-year reviews that we have had in the past because it takes account of commitments that we have made and the outlook is quite aligned with those commitments. For the first time, we had a reduced expenditure appropriation. That does not happen very often, most often we increase appropriation because there are new revenues and all of that, but this was particular,” she added.
