Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo, Auditor General, who announced this, said contract for the procurement of equipment and machines to test the thickness of asphalt roads and concretes in government buildings, would soon be awarded to begin integrity audits in the road and construction sectors.

Speaking at the 5th quadrennial delegates’ conference of the Audit Service Divisional Union of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) in Kumasi, he said the objective was to ensure value for money in the public construction industry and protect the public purse.

The conference was under the theme: “the role of the state auditor in protecting the public purse”.

Mr Domelevo said it has become very crucial at this point of the country’s development, for the Auditor General’s Office to embark on various forms of audit to ensure accountability in the public service and reduce financial leakages.

He said the payroll audit, which had engaged the attention of the Service for some time, was intended to sanitize the public sector payroll system by identifying the overaged workers and illegal people who were still on the system.

The aim was to help clean up the system in order to create employment opportunities for the graduate youth who are yet to be employed.

Mr Domelevo said the Service is also going to collaborate with the Ghana Revenue Authority to conduct revenue audit in order to block all the leakages associated with government revenue generation drive.

He urged staff of the Service to eschew unprofessionalism and untimeliness as accuracy and quality of their work was very important.

Mr Domelevo advised the staff to work hard and ensure that they did not use their privileges to settle scores with people as the outcome of their work could change the lives of some people forever.

Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the Senior Minister, lauded the Auditor General’s Office for the decision to conduct various forms of audits and pledged government’s support for the Service.

He was of the view that, accountability should be the hallmark in the management of public resources as the country sought to make progress in development.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said all public office holders should be accountable for their decisions, actions, inactions and general behaviour in the use of public resources.

He said the country could not rely only on competitive tender in order to get the best deal if the specifications were loose and not technically quantitative, advising that, tender advertisements should be more specific and detailed.

He called for collaboration between the government, the service and other stakeholders to find ways to make the Service an authority capable of fighting corruption since the country has been losing money through corruption.

Mr Kwame Asare, outgoing chairman of the Divisional Union, called for the total financial independence of the Service and improved conditions of service of staff.

He said delayed salaries and untimely releases of funds for audit activities to staff, created challenges for them in administering their duties as they sometimes relied on clients for basic working logistics.

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Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo, Auditor General

GNA

KOM/PDC

30 January, 2019