Ngama gave the assurance at the opening of a two-day workshop organised by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) sub-committee on the roadmap for adoption of IPSAS in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said the implementation of IPSAS would promote peer-review mechanism of financial reports among the three tiers of government.
``Indeed, the adoption of IPSAS will no doubt serve as foundation for better accounting reporting system in Nigeria,’’ Ngama, represented by Mr Jonah Otunla, the Accountant-General of the Federation, said.
He recalled that in July 2010 the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved that Nigeria should adopt the provisions of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for both the public and private sectors.
He said that FAAC in June 2011 set up a committee to provide a roadmap for the adoption of IPSAS in the three tiers of government.
``Several governments are adopting IPSAS as the financial reporting standard because of its inherent qualities of promoting transparency and accountability, Nigeria must therefore, not be left behind.’’
Reports say that the minister also outlined the gains of adopting the high quality independently developed accounting standards international financial reporting standard.
Ngama noted that at the end of the implementation process, the nation would have achieved a standardised uniform chart of accounts, budget and general-purpose financial statements of international standards.
He said the interactive and sensitisation session in Abuja for the North Central zone was the final in the first stage of the consultations on implementation process.
Mr Paul Audu, the Accountant-General in Kogi, told newsmen that the ultimate of IPSAS was to move the country from a cash-based accounting system to an accrual basis.
``All over in the private sector and in the corporate world, accounting is prepared based on accrual basis but in government everything is just cash-based.
``But we believe that with the development of IPSAS, we would start from cash and move gradually to accrual.’’
Audu also corroborated the view expressed by several participants at the workshop that the implementation of IPSAS would improve the integrity of financial reporting.
He said: ``one thing is to prepare finance reports but what is the integrity of the documents you have presented?
``IPSAS is an attempt to ensure that what is prepared is true and is fair and that documents now become valid and useful to users of accounting information.’’
The Kogi accountant-general also said that Nigeria was mindful that other nations were moving toward IPSAS and therefore, it could afford to lag behind.
``Accounting information prepared by pubic organisations is of use to various stakeholders and not necessarily bringing economic benefits.
``At a point, organisations such as World Bank and IMF may insist that whatever financial document or information is provided must use IPSAS as basis of preparation, otherwise they may not be able to evaluate the document.’’
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