MDA granted on December 31st for filing separate financial statements – Business – The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News

•FY intends to cancel negative assets worth 39 trillion.
Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have been given until December 31 to submit separate financial statements for 2024. The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein, said this on Tuesday at an awareness workshop on the National Asset Register. The event also focused on the strategic importance of legacy asset transfer in the implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) held in Abuja.

The AGF warned that MDAs that do not comply with the directive will face sanctions. She also said the federal government was determined to reverse the trend of rising negative assets.

The workshop was organized by OAGF for Directors of Finance, Internal Audit and Chief Accountants of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Madein said the reason Nigeria was found to have more liabilities than assets is because the country failed to collate, evaluate and value the assets of the Federal Government. She said Nigeria adopted IPSAS accrual accounting in January 2016, but many legacy assets were yet to be recognized, measured and loaded.

“Consequently, we continue to have huge negative net assets in our consolidated financial statements for 2021, which amounted to N39 trillion,” she said. Madein said the strategic importance of transferring legacy assets could not be overstated, even though the pace of MDA transfers had been frustratingly slow.

“This delay impedes the timeliness and accuracy of our consolidated financial statements and has a material impact on our ability to manage our net asset deficit as expected,” she said.

She said the Federal Government had decided to create a National Asset Register (NAR) which would include all assets owned by the government including buildings, land, roads built by the government, hospitals, schools and equipment.

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

She said: “Legacy asset management represents a critical tool for strengthening our financial position and easing our budgetary pressures. By systematically cataloging and valuing legacy assets, MDAs can unlock significant value that would otherwise remain dormant.”

She warned that her office would initiate enforcement actions, adding that sanctions would be imposed on non-compliant MDAs who continue to delay critical transfers.

The AGF has set a deadline of December 31 for all MDAs to submit their separate 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 by the time we report to the federal government for 2024, we can move from a financial report where we always have negative assets to one that will have positive assets, which means, that our assets will be depleted. and above our obligations,” she said.