Estate surveyors canvass ‘Valuer General’ position ahead IPSAS implementation

As Nigeria prepares for the implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS), estate surveyors and valuers, who see opportunities for them in the implementation, are already taking position and strategizing to ensure that they count and remain relevant.

The estate surveyors under the aegis of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV),  in addition to canvassing for the ‘Valuer General’ in line with Auditor General, Accountant General, Solicitor General, Attorney General etc at state and federal levels of government, are also applying themselves to the knowledge and understanding of the public sector accounting standard.

This, perhaps, informed the choice of the topic, ‘Implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting  Standards (IPSAS) in Nigeria’, for the Mandatory Continuing  Professional Development (MCPD) lecture organised by the Lagos State chapter of the institution recently.

Bode Adediji, former president of the institution, told BusinessDay in an interview on the sideline of the MCPD lecture that IPSAS was a universal phenomenon, stressing that Nigeria must not be different from what the rest of the world was doing. “Whatever the challenges, this is a noble programme and we must key into it. Whether or not we have 100 percent in 2015, what is important is for us to start”, he said.

“If you look at the basic objectives, whatever is applicable or that drives the private sector, some of them should be extended to the public sector and must be pursued”, he advised.

Samuel Ukpong, the institution’s branch chairman noted at the event that IPSAS implementation hsd three major stakeholders including the valuer which is the reason for setting up a committee by the branch to draft a bill for a law to be presented to the Lagos State House of Assemply to create the office of the Valuer General in the state’s public service.

“The Valuer General is to handle the physical assets of the state in terms of presentation and ensure their sustainability which will add value to them”, Ukpong explained.

Akin Olawore, one of the facilitators at the lecture explained further that IPSAS was developed by the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB), a private, independent standard setting body under the auspices of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).

IPSAS, he said, had taken on this important role because the standards reflect an accrual-based approach not found in most other public sector frameworks and provide universal standards that are not based on individual national laws.

Olawore noted that many countries had already introduced IPSAS or similar standards, and that more countries have expressed plans to adopt IPSAS in the future. “Many supranational organizations including the European Commission, NATO, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations currently use IPSAS-based financial accounting and reporting or have decided to do so in the near future”,  he added.

Continuing, he said, “applicability of IPSAS is based mainly on International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) – frameworks put together by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), adding that both IAS and IFRS were concerned chiefly with financial reporting of private sector companies and, like IAS and IFRS, IPSAS was a framework for financial accounting, valuation, and financial statutory reporting.