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Auditors have been encouraged to uphold professional standards in the discharge of their duties in order to enhance the pursuit of good governance and accountability to help improve their respective institutions.
As auditors, the President of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Ghana, Joseph Dakora Zumasigee, said it was important that the auditors abided by the code of ethics as enshrined in the global internal audit standards to make them stand out as people who belonged to a profession that was worth defending.
He was speaking in Accra last Friday to commemorate this year’s Internal Auditors Awareness Creation Month which is in May each year. As part of this year’s event, the members embarked on a health walk from the Osu Ringway to the Ministries enclave amid singing and dancing.
“Talking about standards, our work becomes very difficult if we are not able to carry our stakeholders along with us. That is why even as we strive to abide by the standards, let’s create the opportunity to take our stakeholders through some portions of the standards that are relevant to them so that they will understand why we approach our work the way we do.
That way, they will know that we are held or we are enjoined by those tenets of the professional body that we belong to and that will make them understand why we take certain decisions,” Mr Zumasigee said.
He also urged the auditors to take an interest in the initiatives of the IAA and contribute to its reformation. He noted that there were some members who believed that the institute’s standards were adopted from foreigners and, therefore, were not suitable for the local environment.
To clear that misconception, the President said the IIA through its council contributed to the standards when the document was released. He said the institute liaised with the Internal Audit Agency to present a public sector position on the draft.
“As we speak, the topical requirement on cyber security has been released since April for commentary. The commentary period closes on July 3 this year and it would be a sad situation if we in Ghana do not make contributions to that topical requirement.
If we don't make our voices heard, there is no way our concerns will be considered when the final tools are being released. So for me, I feel that we have a rare opportunity. This is one of the professional bodies I belong to where I have an opportunity to make an input into frameworks when they are being developed,” Mr Zumasigee stated.
