Public Sector Accounting and Auditing (PSAA) in Francophone Sub-Saharan Countries

Executive Summary:

This report examines the institutional framework, national structures/institutions, and educational infrastructure pertaining to public sector accounting and auditing (PSAA) practices in Francophone Sub-Saharan African countries. The insights and evidence are drawn from official documentation, local visits and interviews with relevant informants in Benin, Niger, Togo and Cameroon. In the first instance, the relevant PSAA terminologies, existing occupational groupings and practices are explained alongside observations on what might be actually happening on the ground, thereby providing a valuable knowledge base for a Francophone African-adjusted API curriculum. We also highlight the specificities of PSAA practitioners in the Francophone African context in that they represent distinct functional roles and responsibilities in the public accounting and auditing space, typically organized in bodies (Corps); such that the path to a single PSAA profession (and associated competency framework), akin to a national private sector professionalization project, would be quite challenging unless one changes the premise under which Francophone PSAA is established.

Instead, we identify opportunities for engagement with multiple professional and academic organisations towards a gradual embedding of the API’s framework and learning materials in Francophone African settings, through for example the launching of formal academic programmes and by relying on continuous development programme (CPD) schemes. Such steps will be valuable in providing opportunities, space and synergies in enhancing public financial management (PFM) outcomes i.e. ultimately API’s goal. Admittedly, there are risks in terms of the political willingness and/or resource availability of local players in initiating collaborations and in sustaining PSAA capacity building programmes. Hence, while we see merit for the API and its partners to broach agreements to collaborate at the regional level, the best examples/experiences and outcomes come from the field. To this extent, there is merit for the API to initiate field-level partnerships with practitioner organisations and training/educational institutions in target countries to showcase what could be achieved.