Dr Eric Oduro Osae, Director-General, Internal Audit Agency (iAA), has appealed to the Government for a permanent office for the Agency to enable the body project its visibility.

He urged the Government to support, retool and provide the Agency with a new and a permanent office befitting its status to enable it provide the required advisory and assurance service to Government on real-time basis.

“I am also happy to announce that the iAA, working through Internal Auditors and Audit Committees across the country, saved the nation
GH¢235,229,749.08 in 2020 fiscal year,” Dr Osae said in his welcome address at the opening of the 2021 Annual Internal Audit Conference.

The Conference was on the theme, “Sustaining Internal Control, Risk Management and Business Continuity in the Public Sector: The Role of Stakeholders”.

He reported a decline in the annual infractions reported by the Auditor-General for Ministries, Departments and Agencies’ in 2020 by about 32 per cent from GH¢3.0 billion in 2019 to GH¢2.1 billion in 2020, attributing the gain to the work of the Internal Auditors and the various Audit Committees.

The three-day conference is a flagship programme organised by the iAA in fulfilment of its mandate of providing a means for keeping Covered Entities informed about the challenges and control deficiencies in the execution of Government business.

Dr Osae informed the conference that the Agency had also commenced a process of naming and shaming institutions, and support the prosecution of persons found to have stolen monies or engaged in financial irregularities under the Public Financial Management Act and Criminal offence Act,1960 (Act 29).

He said iAA had over the years, positioned itself to deliver on its mandate through the institution of pragmatic advisory and assurance services to public institutions.

“The Agency is also leaving no stone unturned by tightening control systems and ensuring that Covered Entities use state resources judiciously.”

Dr Osae entreated governing Boards, Principal Accounts Holders, and Principal Spending Officers to ensure compliance with dictates of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act, 2016, since the Agency would in the coming days work through the Audit Committees to pursue Covered entities to ensure compliance with Act.

Section 7(2) of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act, 2016 (Act 921) requires Principal Spending Officers (PSOs) to establish an effective risk management system, internal control and internal audit in the use of resource.

Section 90 of the Act, also tasks governing boards of state institutions to minimize risk by establishing and maintaining appropriate risk management systems.

The iAA Director-General said staff of the institution, as well as Public Sector Internal auditors, would be happy their salaries and conditions of service were rationalised to bring them at par with their contemporaries in similar financial and revenue agencies such as Ghana Audit Service and Controller and Accountant General's Department.

He appealed for a repeal of the current internal Audit Agency Act 2003 (Act 658) to restructure Public Sector internal audit and move the Agency to become an Internal Audit Service (IAS).

Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, National Security Minister, said internal audit plays an important role in the efforts to combat corruption; saying it makes sure that deviations from accounting practices were minimized.

“The importance of the internal audit is that it prevents the rot before it becomes the rot,” he stated.

Professor Olivia Kwapong, Dean, School of Continuing and Distance Education, College of Education, University of Ghana, who chaired the event urged Ghanaians to champion the fight against corruption at all levels to build a better nation.

She said sustaining internal controls and managing risk in the public sector was the responsibility of all.

Mr Joseph Winful, Chairman, iAA, reiterated that the current state of the Internal Audit Agency Act was a significant impediment to the Agency’s role of ensuring a well-equipped, independent, and objective internal audit functions in the public sector.