Budget is one of the most important elements of public sector accounting, as it expresses government intentions and plans in financial terms. We can easily gauge the priorities of any government, policy direction and goals by the contents of its budget. People can use the budget as a barometer to measure the sincerity and performance…
n theory and practice, Cash-based IPSAS accounting may not present a serious bookkeeping challenge because it is based on recognising all inflows as Receipts (Revenue) and outflows as Payments (Expenditure). However, under Accrual IPSAS, where Cash must be accounted for as an asset while Revenue and Expenditures are accounted for separately, there are transition challenges…
Nigeria’s public sector accounting system has known nothing other than Cash-based accounting since its inception more than sixty years ago. The Nigerian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (NGAAP) for public sector financial reporting, derived from UK accounting standards and International Accounting Standards (IAS), were largely based on Cash Accounting. Transactions were recorded only when cash was…
First-time adoption is a standard procedure required for all entities adopting IPSAS or IFRS for the first time as the mandatory first step towards full IPSAS or IFRS adoption and compliance. The First-Time Adoption process constitutes an important part of IPSAS Transition Management. Even if a public sector entity is newly created, some rudimentary financial…
Although both IFRS and IPSAS have provided the relevant implementation guidelines under the First-Time Adoption of the standards (IFRS 1 and IPSAS 33), these guidelines are not far-reaching enough to address local issues and challenges associated with their implementation. That is why each jurisdiction must develop a custom framework for implementing these standards. The steps…
One of the goals of IPSAS is the attainment of uniform accounting measurements and reporting across the various tiers of government to enable comparability of financial information. The only way this IPSAS objective can be achieved is by ensuring that all tiers of government use a uniform chart of accounts and reporting template. That is…