Minister Uzziel Ndagijimana signs off 16th Annual Consolidated Financial Statements

Kigali, Sept. 30 (RNA) – The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana has signed off the 16th annual Consolidated Financial Statements covering the period from 1st July 2020 to 30th June 2021 and the Consolidated Financial Statements have been handed over to the Office of Auditor General.

The move is in accordance with the statutory requirement stated in article 67 of the Organic Law nº 12/2013/OL of 12/09/2013, on State Finance and Property, which requires the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning to prepare consolidated financial statements and submit them to the Auditor General of State Finances by 30th September of the following fiscal year.

The FY 2020/21 Consolidated Financial Statements include a total of 147 Budget Agencies under the central government, 27 districts and City of Kigali under local government, making a total of 175 Budget Agencies classified under the national budget. In addition, there are 116 Self Accounting development projects under development budget. The report also includes (by way of disclosure) the statement of Government investments; Statement of Public debt as well as summarized financial information of sub district entities (commonly known as non-budget agencies) as well as other important disclosures including consumables inventories; summary of physical assets; contingent assets and liabilities; etc.

In line with ongoing reforms in accounting aiming to migrate to accrual basis of accounting using the International Public Sector Accounting Standards; each district has consolidated financial reports of its respective sectors as well as public district hospitals which has enlarged the scope of consolidated financial statements with additional 446 entities namely 416 sectors as well as 30 public district hospitals.

This is the sixteenth set of consolidated financial statements that MINECOFIN has prepared with the first having been prepared in 2007 and relating to financial year ended 31st December 2006. Since then, Government has prepared consolidated financial statement for each year with remarkable year-on-year improvement in terms of quality (accuracy and completeness) both at the Government wide consolidation level and at the individual reporting entities.

The enhanced quality has been evidenced by the gradual and progressive increment in the number of reporting entities achieving unqualified (clean) audit opinions over the previous five financial periods. The timely submission and improved quality of the consolidated financial statements is as a result of efforts of the Office of Accountant General spearheading the consolidation exercise and cooperation from Chief Budget Managers and their finance staff in all public entities.

The submission of the consolidated financial statements to the Office of Auditor General will now pave way for the audit of both the consolidated financial statements as well of that of individual reporting entities for Financial Year ended 30th June 2021, the results of which shall be presented to the Parliament by April 2022. (End).