By Babatunde Ayedoju

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The Acting Accountant-General of Ondo State, Mr Segun Orisabinone has charged accountants in the state to ensure that they imbibe the culture of integrity and transparency in the discharge of their duties.

Orisabinone who gave this charge in an interview with The Hope at a public lecture organised by the  State Accountants Forum on Thursday as part of its 2024 Accountants’ Week, added that the current administration intends to ensure that accountants in the public service are more familiar with financial management strategies.

Delivering his lecture, Dr Lawrence Layiwola Ibukun, who spoke on financial management strategies to meet the nation’s present economic transformation objectives, stressed that sound financial management is vital to the realisation of the new administration’s policy objectives.

The one-time Accountant-General of Ondo State explained that sound financial management strategy covers tax laws and reforms, budget management, debit management, subsidies and state-owned enterprises.

He said, “A well-structured financial strategy is critical to ensuring accountability and efficiency in the use of public financial resources, while a weak financial management strategy can result in a significant waste of resources.

“Indeed, a sound fiscal and monetary policy is sine qua non to a strong financial management system.”

The seasoned accountant, citing existing literature, stressed that financial sector development plays a large role in economic development of any country, as it plays a large role in boosting capital accumulation and enhancing technological progress by increasing the rate of savings and mobilisation of other resources for investment process.

Dr Ibukun recommended that to achieve Nigeria’s economic transformation objectives, government should enhance revenue mobilisation and diversification, embark on prudent fiscal management, debt management and sustainability, promotion of public-private partnership, security of lives and property, investment in human capital development, institutional capacity building and government reforms, alongside a heavy development of ICT.

Another speaker, Mr P.B. Akingbade, while speaking on reengineering accounting profession in an era of ICT, said that accountants must possess key knowledge and competencies such as principles of management theory, leadership, effective communication, team work, planning and ICT.

In his welcome address, the Chairman of Ondo State Accountants Forum, Mr Thompson Adekambi, urged members to always keep proper records and be ready to put them forward for scrutiny, saying that such transparency would set aside  wrong notion people have about accountants.