President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said accountants must move beyond recording government expenditure to determining what public funds actually achieve.

Tinubu, represented by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Dr. Shamseldeen Babatunde Ogunjimi, said this yesterday at the 31st Annual National Conference of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) in Abuja with the theme, “Redefining the Accountant’s Role in Governance, Reform and National Development.”

He said the focus should shift from tracking how much was spent to measuring the results achieved from such expenditure.

“The question is no longer how much was spent. We must increasingly ask what was achieved with what was spent,” he said.

Tinubu said the shift was necessary as the country implements reforms in public finance, budgeting, revenue, taxation and other areas of the economy.

He added that accountants should be involved early in policy and spending decisions by identifying risks, challenging assumptions and providing evidence to guide decisions.

The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, represented by the Chief Director of Payment Services, Dr. Rakiya Opemi Yusuf said accountants should also move away from waiting to report what had already happened and become more involved in preventing risks.

“We do not need to wait again. We do not need to report what has taken place,” he said.

The President and Chairman of the Council of ANAN, Chief Hajia Zuwairat Talatu Kishimi, said accountability should begin before public resources were committed, rather than after they had been spent.

She said accountants should ask what a project was meant to achieve, what it should cost, the risks involved and how its performance would be measured.

Kishimi said the gap between resources committed and results achieved was an accountability gap that accountants must help close. (Daily Trust)