Finance Minister Henry Musasizi has challenged accountants to move beyond traditional bookkeeping and take a more active role in enforcing fiscal discipline, strengthening accountability and ensuring public resources deliver measurable development results.
Musasizi said accountants occupy a critical position in Uganda’s financial management system because they generate, analyse and validate much of the evidence used by Government and businesses to make financial and investment decisions.
He made the remarks while officiating as Chief Guest at the 31st Annual Seminar of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) held at Imperial Resort Beach Hotel in Entebbe under the theme “Transforming Institutions and Lives for Sustainable Growth.”
“Evidence-based decision making is fundamental to accelerating economic development, promoting sustainable business growth and avoiding costly policy and investment mistakes,” Musasizi said.
The Minister said the accounting profession must evolve from simply recording and reporting transactions to providing strategic insights that help institutions make sound decisions, strengthen controls and improve performance.
“Accountants are strategic partners in ensuring prudent fiscal management, effective public service delivery, and sustainable economic development,” he said.
Accountants tasked with protecting public resources
Musasizi said reliable financial information is particularly important in the public sector, where Government must constantly track revenue and expenditure, protect public assets, manage liabilities and establish whether money allocated to programmes is actually producing the intended development outcomes.
He placed accountants at the centre of all three critical stages of Uganda’s national budgeting process: planning and budget preparation, budget execution and control, and budget accountability and reporting.
According to Musasizi, accountants should also help Government track public resources in real time, monitor cash flows and spending limits, and identify financial commitments before payments are made.
Such monitoring, he said, is essential in preventing the accumulation of domestic arrears and controlling the growth of fiscal deficits.
The remarks come amid continued efforts by Government to strengthen public financial management and ensure that budget allocations translate into tangible services and infrastructure rather than being lost through weak controls, poor planning or financial mismanagement.
Technology changing accounting profession
Musasizi also urged accountants to embrace emerging technologies, warning that the profession is rapidly changing as digital systems transform how financial information is generated, processed and used.
He specifically cited digital financial management systems, blockchain and artificial intelligence as technologies that accountants must understand and incorporate into their work.
The Minister argued that accountants who fail to adapt risk being left behind as institutions increasingly rely on automated systems and data-driven decision-making.
He called on professionals to use technology not merely to automate accounting processes but to improve transparency, strengthen financial controls and provide timely information for decision-makers.
ICPAU calls for integrity and new skills
ICPAU President CPA Timothy Ediomu similarly challenged accountants to look beyond the numbers and embrace their expanding role in an increasingly complex business environment.
Ediomu urged professionals to continuously acquire new skills while maintaining high standards of integrity and professionalism.
He said accountants must position themselves as trusted advisers capable of providing strategic guidance rather than limiting themselves to conventional financial reporting functions.
The two leaders’ calls underscore the growing expectation that Uganda’s accounting profession should play a more decisive role in protecting public finances, improving institutional performance and ensuring that scarce resources are deployed efficiently.
For Government, the challenge is increasingly shifting from simply allocating money through budgets to ensuring that every shilling can be accounted for and linked to a meaningful development outcome.
