Dhaka, May 29 (bdnews24.com) — Reforming the rules and regulations for public sector accounting in South Asian countries in the wake of computer automation has come up as the key issue at the assembly of the Association of Government Accounts Organisations in Asia (AGAOA).
The fourth AGAOA assembly, hosted by the Controller General of Accounts of Bangladesh, started on Saturday at the city's Sheraton Hotel with the theme, 'Enhancing Professional Competence: Conquering the Barriers'.
Formed in 2004 in Colombo, the AGAOA is a platform of public-sector chief accountants of the South Asian states which aims to help develop professional understanding and common meaningful practices of accounting in the region.
The key note paper, presented at the inaugural session, pointed out that although governments in the region has initiated reforms in the arena, "with the introduction of automation, the existing rules and regulations have become inadequate and non-compatible to meet the changed scenario."
Noting that "cash basis' accounting was the generally followed practice in South Asia, the paper said such accounting practice fails to provide a comprehensive scenario of a government's financial performance.
The paper also says that cash basis accounting does not allow the possibility of running a study on impact analysis.
CGA Shahad Chowdhury, in his welcome speech, underscored enhancing professional competencies of the government accountants
"In the wake of the change in the global financial scenario, it's urgent that South Asian countries engage in the gradual transformation from cash basis to accrual basis accounting," he said.
According to the chief accountant of the country, accountants now need to engage themselves in policy formulation and strategic activities.
"It's not about counting figures anymore."
Finance secretary Mohammad Tareque said that accounting acts as a control mechanism and guards against corruption and wastage in public sector expenditure.
"According to all forecasts, Asia is going to take the lead role in the global economic scenario by 2015," said the secretary adding that AGAOA's challenge would be transforming the region's accounting practice to meet the change.
Finance minister AMA Muhith attended as chief guest of the opening session.
"Accounting competence is the pillar of governance, be it public or corporate."
He said that good accounting practice is an integral part of transparency and accountability, which is now a "much talked issue".
"It's a system to ensure transparency and showing the way to do better things in a better way," Muhith told the conference.
AGAOA was formed in 2004 with eight founding members: Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,
Recently, Afghanistan has been made a member of the association.
In the founding year of AGAOA, the first assembly was held in Pakistan followed by two more assemblies in India and Nepal respectively, in 2005 and 2007.
As the Dhaka-assembly of AGAOA is being held, the chairmanship of the association has also been shifted to Bangladesh.
Outgoing chairman Madhav Prasad Ghimire, the Financial Controller General of Nepal handed over the chairmanship to Shahad Chowdhury, Controller of General Accounts (CGA) of Bangladesh.
bdnews24.com/rhn/db/1530h
