Ministry of Finance begins ten-part IPSAS programme for the Public Accounts

The Ministry of Finance has commenced a ten-part training programme in the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) for officers of the Accounts and Financial Reporting Division — taught not in the abstract, but through the Ministry’s own Public Accounts schedules.

The programme opened on Friday, 7 August 2026 at the Level 2, Training Room with an overview session attended by 14 officers of the Accounts and Financial Reporting Division, together with colleagues from other Divisions involved in the compilation of the Annual Public Accounts.

Each of the ten sessions takes a single group of schedules — beginning with the consolidated budget comparison statements — and works through it in sequence: how the schedules are compiled, the legislative authority behind them, the specific IPSAS requirements they must satisfy, the evidence that supports them, and the review steps that must be completed before they can be signed off.

The programme is sponsored by the #TautaiPartnership and delivered by Apia Chartered Accountants, working with the Ministry on actual compilation files rather than worked examples.

“IPSAS is not a manual to be read once and shelved. It only becomes useful when an officer can point to the paragraph behind the figure they have just compiled. That is why we teach the standard through the Ministry’s own schedules — so the officers who prepare the Public Accounts can evidence every figure, and the Ministry is in a stronger position each year with the Controller and Auditor General.”

— Terence Su’a, Principal, Apia Chartered Accountants

The remaining sessions will run through to August, concluding with the notes, review and close-out session.

The Public Accounts (IPSAS) Compilation Sessions are sponsored by the Tautai Partnership and delivered by Apia Chartered Accountants for the Ministry of Finance.

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