The Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, has advised internal auditors to desist from conniving with duty bearers in government institutions to misappropriate state funds.

He said that would be their contribution to prevent corruption in state institutions.

Dr. Osae was speaking at the opening of a two-day capacity building seminar for internal auditors drawn from the Eastern and Oti regions at Koforidua last Friday.

Audit Service Bill

The event was aimed at equipping the participants with the necessary skills to address inherent challenges as well as solicit views on the new Internal Audit Service Bill.

When passed, the Bill will equate the condition of service of internal auditors to their colleagues at the Controller and Accountant General's Department and the Audit Service.

According to the Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, although the internal auditors performed a crucial role of preventing such frauds from occurring, in most cases the external auditors were called in after the money had been stolen.

"If the internal auditors are well resourced, they will be able to reduce corrupt practices. They are demoralised because their poor condition of service and this is why we are organising this seminar," he stated.

Prosecuting offenders

Dr. Osae told the gathering that his outfit would soon start prosecuting offenders found of breaches in internal audit reports.

He said his office would also publish the lists of institutions that had failed to submit their audit reports ahead of time.

Lack of logistics

For his part, the Acting Director in charge of Operations of the Internal Audit Agency, Mr. Nathan Yankey, expressed concern about the lack of logistics such as computers and their accessories that had adversely affected the smooth running of internal audit departments, which made it difficult to fight against corruption.

He said it was time for the government and other relevant authorities to place more emphasis on internal auditors’ role as a pre-corruption prevention activity.