Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, AKHA, has organised a training workshop on the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) budget to improve lawmakers’ productivity and performance as it relates to their three basic functions of representation, lawmaking, and oversight.
The Speaker, AKHA, flagged off the three-day in-house workshop at the Ibom Icon Hotel and Golf Resort in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, on Friday, October 20, 2023.
In his welcome address, the Speaker of the State Assembly, Rt. Hon. Udeme Otong said the “training workshop on IPSAS was necessary to build the capacity of the legislature to acquire the skills required to pass budgets that comply with global best practices in budgeting.”
The Speaker added that the importance of the training will also help in “enhancing and strengthening the capacity of members on the tools necessary for the effective and efficient discharge of their constitutional duties in the budget process, introducing and updating the knowledge of members on the IPSAS-compliant budget, sharpening their skills and competence on the rudiments of the state budgetary process, as well as implementation monitoring and oversight.”
While appreciating the State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, for approving and providing the required logistics for the workshop, the Speaker appealed to lawmakers to focus and cooperate in the training to improve their legislative business on budget exercises.
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In his keynote address, the Director General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Professor Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman, said the training workshop was mandatory to upgrade the knowledge of legislators on emerging developments in public sector budgeting.
Sulaiman, who was represented by Dr. Francis Ojeh, said: “IPSAS aims to improve the quality of financial reporting by public sector entities, to achieve a better-informed assessment of the resource allocation decisions of governments, and to promote transparency and accountability”.
Shedding more light on the significance of the workshop training, the Chairman of the Appropriations and Finance Committee and Member representing Uruan State Constituency, Hon. Itorobong Etim, said the programme was imperative because Akwa Ibom State had adopted the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in its financial management.
She said that due to such developments, the state budget, which the legislators are to scrutinise, is now prepared using the IPSAS template, and for this reason, the legislators are trained to have some reasonable understanding of IPSAS to effectively discharge their constitutional duties.
Dignitaries who also presented their goodwill messages at the event included the Commissioner for Economic Development, Mr. Emem Bob; the Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Linus Nkan, represented by his Permanent Secretary, Mr. Mark Umo; the Director of Economic Planning in the State, Mr. Ineke Umanah; and the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof. Akpan Ekpo.
In attendance at the occasion were the 26 House Members, the Clerk of the House, Mrs. NsikakAbasi Orok, and the Heads of Directorates and Departments, among others.
