ACCA, AGP sign MoU on governance, policy projects

LAHORE: The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Pakistan (ACCA) and the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on governance and policy projects for Balochistan (GPP Balochistan) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The MoU aims at working in collaboration to address the financial management skills gap that exists across the provincial government departments. At the signing ceremony, the representatives from AGP, Balochistan and FATA government were present.

The signatories included Imran Iqbal – Additional Auditor General of Pakistan, Ahmed Taimoor Nasir – Director General HRM at AGP, Dawood Muhammad Bareach - Additional Chief Secretary, Balochistan, Akbar Hussain Durrani – Secretary Finance, Balochistan, Hazrat Masood Mian – Secretary Finance FATA and Muhammad Zahoor, Coordinator OSU, GPP FATA and Sajjeed Aslam, Head of ACCA Pakistan and Faisal Azeem, Head of Education North.

The signatories to the MoU recognised joint collaboration to strengthen Public Financial Management (PFM) by improving the knowledge base of the government employees through provision of a certified education programme.

ACCA is well-placed to help, as it is the only international accounting body to have a presence in Pakistan for almost 20 years, with offices in six cities, primarily providing professional learning and career opportunities to young people and organisations in the public and private sectors.

Under the MoU, ACCA will provide pathways for individuals who have completed PFM Professional accreditation program (PAP) to top up with a globally recognised professional accounting qualification.

The World Bank will provide financial support for the project through The Multi Donors Trust Funds Pakistan. The World Bank has initiated governance and policy reforms projects in Balochistan and FATA with the focus on public financial management skills enhancement.

High-quality financial information in the public sector enables assessment of the impact of fiscal and monetary policy decisions; assists external reporting by governments to electorates, taxpayers, and investors; and aids internal management decisions in resource allocation (planning and budgeting), monitoring, and accountability.

“The AGP is very conscious of the rising trend of accountability and getting value for the public’s money. Having the right people with the right skills in the right jobs at the right time is fundamental to the architecture of creating a public financial management system that can be relied upon to provide public value services to the citizens of Pakistan and support the democratic process.”

“Institutions are only as good as the people leading and running them and we are looking forward to working with ACCA, a credible organization that we have worked with before as well as the provincial project team leaders,” said Imran Iqbal, the Additional Auditor General Pakistan.

The Head of ACCA Pakistan said there is not only skills gap in understanding and applying the universally accepted principles of financial and management accounting, but there is also a gap in the understanding and application of locally-accepted public sector financial management operating policies and methodologies.