Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, the Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, has advocated for his outfit to be upgraded to a service to give it more power to protect the public purse.
Speaking on The Point of View on Monday, August 16, 2021, he said having internal auditors under a proposed Internal Audit Service will give the auditors “that independence and objectivity they need, so they can bite more.”
According to him, some of the infractions cited in the latest audit reports released by the Auditor-General’s Department are normally flagged by internal audits beforehand. But they are unable to force any action on their findings.
As things stand, Dr. Osae noted that having various internal auditors under different institutions was a major challenge.
For example, auditors under local government are under the Local Government Service, whilst auditors under ministries are under the office of the civil service.
“When they are scattered like that, they are subject to different conditions of services and the people they are expected to check are the same people who determine their conditions of service, so then it becomes extremely difficult for them to act,” Dr. Osae explained.
He noted that there is a Bill under consideration with the Ministry of Finance to possibly set up an Internal Audit Service.
“Once it becomes a service, all these internal auditors will be under the service, so then they can have the required independence and objectivity to protect the government,” Dr. Osae said.
Currently, the Internal Audit Agency is supposed to exercise oversight responsibility for internal audit practice in the Public Service by coordinating, facilitating, and providing national internal audit coverage for good corporate governance and effective risk management in the public service.
Dr. Osae made the remarks on the back of twelve different audit reports released by the Auditor-General’s Department, which revealed that Ghana lost millions of cedis due to infractions committed by various state institutions.
In one of the reports, it was uncovered that financial irregularities committed by various statutory institutions for the year 2020 stood at GHS12.8 billion, up from GHS3 billion and GHS5.5 billion in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Audit reports shouldn’t just be a ritual, prosecutions must follow – Ali-Nakyea
A tax lecturer, Dr. Abdallah Ali-Nakyea, is urging the state to take more concrete action on the findings of reports from the Auditor-General’s department.
Speaking on The Point of View on Citi TV, Dr. Ali-Nakyea said the release of reports by the Auditor-General’s department had become a mere ritual because it does not result in any actions.
He noted that if proper mechanisms are used to retrieve monies, “then we will be giving meaning to the audit report.”
“Else it becomes an annual ritual that does not bring money back into government coffers. We need the revenue that has been misapplied.”
