MDAs for submission of independent financial statements granted on December 31 — Business — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News

•FG moves to reverse N39tr negative holdings
Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were given until December 31 to submit their independent 2024 financial statements. General Accountant of the Federation (AGF) Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein said this at a sensitization workshop on national assets register on Tuesday. The event also focused on the strategic importance of legacy asset presentation at the Implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) held in Abuja.

AGF warned that sanctions would be imposed on an MDA that does not comply with the directive. He also said that the Federal Government was determined to reverse the upward trend in negative assets.

The workshop was organized by OAGF for finance, internal audit directors and heads of accounts of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). Madein said the reason Nigeria has more liabilities than assets is because the country is unable to collect, evaluate and value the assets of the federal government. He said Nigeria adopted IPSAS accrual accounting in January 2016 but many legacy assets were yet to be recognised, measured and charged.

“As a result, we still have huge negative net assets standing at N39 trillion in our 2021 consolidated financial statements,” he said. Madein said that although the pace of rollout of MDAs has been disappointingly slow, the strategic importance of legacy asset rollout should not be overstated.

“This delay impedes the timeliness and accuracy of consolidated financial statements and significantly impacts our ability to address the net asset deficit as expected,” he said.

He said the federal government has decided to create a national asset registry (NAR) that will record all assets owned by the government, including buildings, lands, government-built roads, hospitals, schools and equipment.

“We need to take a good inventory of these assets. “The financial statement provided by the federal government must be accurate, comparable and useful,” he said, adding that the financial statement must be useful because donor groups, investors and other international organizations interested in the Nigerian economy must see the value of the federal government in the country.

He said: “Legacy asset management represents a crucial tool to strengthen our financial position and ease our budget pressures. By systematically cataloging and valuing legacy assets, MDAs can unlock significant value that would otherwise remain idle.”

He warned that his office would initiate measures to ensure compliance, adding that sanctions would be imposed on non-compliant MDAs that continue to delay critical submissions.

AGF has given a deadline of December 31 for all MDAs to submit their independent financial statements, which consist of three parts: statement of financial position, statement of financial performance and statement of cash flows.

“We need this so that when we submit the 2024 federal government account, we will be able to move from a financial statement where we always have negative assets to a financial statement where we have positive assets, which means we will run out of assets.” and above our responsibilities,” he said.