The art of government accounting

Title: Government Accounting in Nigeria: an IPSAS approach Authors: Eddy Omolehinwa and J.K. Naiyeju Year of Publication: 2015 Publisher: Pumark Nigeria Limited This book evolved from an earlier book of the author, Theory and Practice of Government Accounting in Nigeria (2011) which was written then in order to keep students, practitioners and other stakeholders abreast […]

Title: Government Accounting in Nigeria: an IPSAS approach
Authors: Eddy Omolehinwa and J.K. Naiyeju
Year of Publication: 2015
Publisher: Pumark Nigeria Limited

This book evolved from an earlier book of the author, Theory and Practice of Government Accounting in Nigeria (2011) which was written then in order to keep students, practitioners and other stakeholders abreast of developments in government accounting in Nigeria.
The adoption of IPSAS with the attendant changes in financial reporting by the public sector entities has brought about some challenges in the country. One of which is how to fast track the teaching of IPSAS  to civil servants, students of tertiary institutions and those doing their professional examinations. This book has been written to fill part of the existing gap in the accounting literature in order to facilitate the teaching and learning of IPSAS in Nigeria.
This is why Chapters 3, 15, 17, 18 and 19 were written to systematically convey IPSAS to accounting students and practitioners.
Chapter 3 examines the roles of International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in setting the standards called International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for use in the private sector and International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) in setting IPSAS for use by public sector entities. Furthermore, the chapter also discusses how the work of IASB has facilitated the work of IPSASB. This is in addition to the discussion of the structure, governance and standard setting process of IPSASB.
Chapter 17 identifies and discusses the relevant IPSASs used for the book. Chapter 18 discusses the main financial statements under cash- basis IPSAS while the main financial statements under accrual- basis IPSAS are addressed in Chapter 19. As part of government effort towards successful implementation of IPSAS in the country, it has introduced some reforms in government accounting. These reforms which include Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the National Charts of Accounts are discussed in chapter 15.
However, the book is not about IPSAS alone. For example, Chapter 2 gives an overview of public financial management, its objectives and its importance to a country like Nigeria. It identifies and discusses the challenges faced by the Nigerian government in its attempts to achieve the objectives of public financial management. Given the central role of budgeting in government accounting, five out of the 21 chapters in the book are devoted to the various areas of government budgeting in the country. Chapter 11 has been written specifically to address the challenges of capital budget implementation in the country.
Chapter 4 is on Financial Control Under 2007 Fiscal Responsibility Act while Chapter 7 addresses the sources and allocation of government revenue in Nigeria. Chapter 12 is on Special Accounts of government which the book argues should no longer exist in order to promote transparency and accountability. Chapter 13 is on government contracts. Chapter 20 discusses Public Accountability in Nigeria before ending with Sovereign Wealth Fund in Chapter 21 with advice to the various tiers of government on why the case between the Federal government and the state governments in the Supreme Court should be settled out of court in order to prevent the “sudden death” of the fund.
This book will also be a veritable source of information to all public servants, political office holders, civil society organizations, international organizations and other stakeholders.