Accra, Oct. 4 GNA - The Controller and Accountant General's Department, on Monday opened the last session of a month-long public financial management workshop for accounting officers from Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), in Accra.

The workshop is to help address challenges faced by accounting officers of MDAs and MMDAs in the performance of their duties. Participants would be taken through topics such as revenue budgeting, budget implementation, banking procedures and bank reconciliation, organisational structure, internal controls, charts of accounts, recording of financial transaction and financial reporting. Opening the workshop, Mrs Grace Adzroe, Deputy Controller and Accountant-General in Charge of Finance and Administration, said the workshop would focus on the compliance with financial laws and expenditure controls.

She said it would also help to facilitate the usage of accounting data reports as powerful management tools by management in their day-to-day administration of finance.

Mrs Adzroe said the demands for accountability for the use of resources was on the increase, but audit reports of MDAs and MMDAs consistently revealed weaknesses in the control and management of public funds over the years, hence the need for such a workshop. She said since the public sector was dynamic and subject to change in terms of skills and technology, the workshop would also help better manage human resources for maximum gain. Mrs Adzroe noted that there was an on-going fiscal decentralization policy in the public sector, which had seen the government embarking on several reforms in the public financial management systems. Mr Fats Nartey, Chief Director of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council, appealed to the Controller and Accountant General's Department to consider decentralizing the pension system in the country.

Mr Nartey advised the participants to avoid financial irregularities adding that they should take their financial reporting seriously.