The MoU aims at working in collaboration to address the financial management skills gap that exists across the finance functions of the provincial government departments. At the signing ceremony held here on Friday, the representatives from the AGP, Balochistan and FATA were present. The signatories included Additional Auditor General of Pakistan Imran Iqbal, Director General HRM at AGP Ahmed Taimoor Nasir, Additional Chief Secretary Balochistan Dawood Muhammad Bareach, Secretary Finance Balochistan Akbar Hussain Durrani, Secretary Finance FATA Hazrat Masood Mian and Muhammad Zahoor, Co-ordinator OSU, GPP FATA. The signatories from ACCA included Sajjeed Aslam, Head of ACCA Pakistan, and Faisal Azeem, Head of Education North.
The signatories to this MoU recognised that joint collaboration to strengthen public financial management (PFM) by improving the knowledge base of government employees through provision of a certified education programme would be mutually beneficial. The 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 office in six cities, primarily providing professional learning and career opportunities to young people and organisations in the public and private sectors. Under the MoU, the ACCA will provide pathways for individuals, who have completed PFM Professional Accreditation Programme (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 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 the governments to electorates, taxpayers, and investors; and aids internal management decisions in resource allocation (planning and budgeting), monitoring and accountability.
Additional Auditor General Pakistan, Imran Iqbal stated the AGP is very conscious of the rising trend of accountability and getting value for the public 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 the ACCA, a credible organisation that we have worked with before as well as the provincial project team leaders.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Head of ACCA Pakistan said, "Not only is there a 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." Respect for those working in public finance comes from their professionalism, which is not a given anywhere in the world one has to have strong leaders who are willing to invest in people to convert them into professionals ie those that have both the expertise and the ethics to do the right thing and stand up for policies and rules in the interest of the common man. Head of Education ACCA Faisal Azeem said that he is looking forward to initially working with the leadership of the AGP.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017