Public Sector Accounting and Finance

Where the marks are

Percentages are the examinable weighting for each area. Revising in this order puts your time where the marks are.

1. Report and Audit

   20%

   Public sector accounting processes (treasury cash book and transcripts, cash management and borrowing guidelines, vouchers, bank reconciliation, deposits/advances/imprest, loss of public funds, vote book and expenditure and revenue control) · Roles of FAAC, JAAC, Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria, RMAFC and MOFI · Federation Account, special funds account, federal public sector independent revenue and charges to the Consolidated Revenue Fund · Roles of revenue collection agencies (NRS, SIRS, Local Government Revenue Authorities, NUPRC, NMDPRA, NCS, NNPCL) · Revenue collection and monitoring procedures · Cash basis IPSAS: structure, objectives, responsibility, characteristics and components · Statutory financial statements for federal, state and local government treasury under cash basis IPSAS · IPSAS 33 – First-time Adoption of Accrual Basis IPSAS · IPSAS 34 – Separate Financial Statements · Applicable accrual basis IPSAS: definitions, application, recognition, measurement and disclosures · Statutory financial statements for federal, state and local government treasury under accrual basis IPSAS · Accounting for public sector organisations and government business entities, including enabling laws and financial statements of utilities, parastatals, agencies and tertiary institutions · Public sector audit: legal requirements, audit process, public accountability, financial controls and control institutions, ISSAI and ISA, performance/value-for-money, risk based and environmental audit

2. Planning and Budgeting

   20%

   Importance of planning and budgeting in the public sector and the objectives and use of the annual budget · Types of budgets: line-item, traditional/incremental, PPBS (planning programming), programme performance budgeting and zero-base budgeting · Rolling, development and perspective plans · Steps in the budgeting process and budgetary control · IPSAS 24 – Presentation of Budget Information in Financial Statements

3. Regulatory and Conceptual Frameworks of Public Sector Accounting

   20%

   Constitutional, legislative and regulatory contexts of public sector accounting (constitutional provisions on revenue, revenue allocation and public expenditure; Finance (Control and Management) Act 1958; financial regulations and financial memoranda) · Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2010 · Public Procurement Act, 2007 (as amended) · IPSAS 11 – Construction Contracts · IPSAS 12 – Inventories · Ethical issues in public sector accounting: functions and powers of EFCC, ICPC, CCB, CCT, Public Accounts Committee and the Courts · Public sector accounting concepts, fund concept and professional pronouncements (UN, IFAC/IPSASB, PAFA API, standardisation of reporting formats in Nigeria) · Pension Reform Act, 2014 (as amended) · IPSAS 39 – Employee Benefits · Emerging issues in the Nigerian public sector (GIFMIS, IPPIS, TSA, ATRRS, Open Treasury Portal, FTeR and NRS e-Invoicing)

4. Public Finance

   20%

   Roles of the public sector in the performance of the Nigerian economy and objectives of fiscal responsibilities · Nature, causes and types of externalities · Emerging issues in Nigerian public finance management · Main sources of revenue and capital finance · Grants as a source of revenue and the expenditure and revenue frameworks of public finance (public expenditure and public goods) · National Privatisation Policy (public versus private provision and production, public goods and public choice, Bureau of Public Enterprises) · Borrowing policy and public debts (funded and unfunded debts, debt burden, deficit financing, external loans, CBN Ways and Means financing) · Debt management strategies (loans pooling and consolidation, re-scheduling, debt-equity swap, debt forgiveness) · Principles and practice of federalism (fiscal federalism, fiscal capacity and needs in multi-level public sector structures) · Intra-public sectorial fiscal relations and Nigeria's experience with revenue allocation · Appraisal of public sector projects: cost-benefit, cost-outcome and cost-effectiveness analysis

5. Sustainability and Sustainable Development

   10%

   United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) · Federal Government's Sustainable Development Goals · Sustainability reporting in the public sector

6. Public Finance Management and Accountability

   10%

   Role of the ICAN Accountability Index (ICAN-AI) in public finance management and accountability (policy based fiscal strategy and budgeting; budget credibility; management of assets and debts; probity, accountability, transparency and disclosures; controls in budget execution, accounting and reporting; external audit and legislative scrutiny)

What Edentos holds for this paper

• 84 past questions from the Institute’s own papers, with its published solutions.
• Timed mock examinations, written by hand and marked against the examiner’s guide.