State Accountants Sharpen Skills

They were trained on November 11 on how to produce clear, honest and accurate reports.

Accountants in State institutions and other subsidised bodies have been told that attaining the objectives sought for by the results-based programme budget passes through clear, honest and accurate financial statements they present at their respective spheres of influence.

Speaking in Yaounde yesterday December 11 while opening a capacity-building workshop for the accountants, the Secretary General at the Ministry of Finance, Urbain Noel Mve, said accurate financial statements are imperative for better decision-making. "The workshop is to get our collaborators abreast with modern management of our finances," he said, stating that they need to improve on the way the budget is presented and executed and the way State treasury is managed.

According to Moh Tangongho Sylvester, Director General of Treasury and Monetary Cooperation in the Ministry of Finance, "We already had reforms on the unique account of the treasury which public establishments have been practicing since 2010. We are now trying to see how we can organise operations carried out on the unique account. They need to announce to us operations that they are supposed to carry out."

The workshop, he noted, aimed at improving the presentation of public account statements which are supposed to be sent to the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court. "We expect the accountants to be more efficient in the production of the management accounts and also to be more organised on the way they send operations to the unique account so that we can be able to handle them properly," Moh Tangongho said.

Through paper presentations and plenary discussions, participants were schooled on topics like, "the keeping of accounts in a State institution and its evolution," "the mastery of risks and internal control in an accounting system," and "the responsibility of authorising officers," et al. They benefitted from the expertise of officials from the Supreme State Audit Office, the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court and the Directorate General of Budget and Treasury.