Government urges ministries to submit accounts by March

Muscat: The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has issued a circular (No. 1/2020) on preparing the State’s Final Accounts for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020.

All Ministries and Government units are instructed to submit their final accounts for FY 2020 to MOF and State Audit Institution (SAI) latest by March 31, 2021, the circular added.

The MOF said that such final accounts should include salient results and objectives achieved during the implementation of the budgets approved for various ministries and government units over the fiscal year.

The final accounts should also include actual revenue and expenditure compared to budgeted revenue and expenditure.

The Ministry also said that the financial position should include details of cash balances of all ministries and government units in their bank accounts and government’s coffers, debit and credit balances, permanent and temporary advance, financial stamps and government’s financial entitlements. It added that a detailed statement should be made on government’s non-financial assets such as, but not limited to, real-estate, lands, inventory, equipment, government libraries and others.

The MOF emphasised that each ministry and government unit should also submit a copy of the report prepared by its internal audit department for the fourth quarter of FY 2020, and bank statements for those units not funded by the MOF.

The Ministry has asked public authorities and establishments that apply different systems to submit their accounts and financial statements for FY 2020 to MOF by no later than January 17, 2021.

MOF has urged all relevant entities to follow the prescribed procedures and provisions set out in the circular. The ministry asserts that any violation of the provisions of the circular will be considered as financial misconduct as per article 41 of the Financial Law promulgated by the Royal Decree No. 47/98.