BCC takes up IPSAS to meet international standards

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has adopted the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) to meet global accounting standards.

According to the latest council minutes, BCC financial director Kempton Ndimande said the IPSAS system was developed locally.

Ndimande said International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which were being used by council had serious shortfalls in capturing data.

"After adoption of IPSAS there has been a shift towards implementing them in the public sector. In Zimbabwe the Finance and Economic Development minister, Mthuli Ncube had launched the Migration to Accrual Based International Public Sector Accounting Standards implementation plan for government institutions on April 3, 2019, to move up to speed with global accounting systems in Zimbabwe," the minutes read.

In 2019, the government gazetted Statutory Instrument 41 of 2019 to domesticate accounting reporting standards.

Bulawayo was later selected as one pilot city for the IPSAS by 2021.

“The Local Government and National Housing ministry then set up an implementation plan for local authorities to migrate to IPSAS by 2024,” the minutes read.

"Laws were amended such as the Public Accountants and Auditors (Paab) Act to make it mandatory for financial statements produced by the public sector to be signed off by staff who had certification as public accountants.

“As baby steps, the African Development Bank under Bulawayo Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project (BWSSIP) provided funding to council last year for a five-day IPSAS workshop conducted by Training and Advisory Services (TAS).”

Indications were that a number of local authorities in Zimbabwe such as Victoria Fall, Marondera and Mutare councils also sought assistance to migrate their accounting systems in line with global accounting standards.

"The consultants, who took BCC council staff through the IPSAS modules last year, were available to assist the council on this journey and were assisting some local authorities migrate to IPSAS.

“Training and Advisory Services (TAS) was a local firm specialising in training and had trained public sector entities in Zimbabwe on IPSAS and assisted them to fully implement it," the minutes read.

BCC gave TAS a four-year contract running to May 2025.