Ten auditors to assist Liberia in auditing

Accra, Feb. 22, GNA - The Ghana Audit Service is sending a 10-member auditing team to Liberia to assist that country in auditing selected state organizations and provide the needed on-the-job training to newly recruited staff.

The trip is in response to a request made to Ghana by the Auditor General of Liberia, Mr John Morlu, because the General Auditing Commission of Liberia lost most of its experienced staff during the civil war.

Members of the team made up of Assistant Auditors-General and other experienced auditors are Mary Koranteng, Joyce Kwakyewa, J.S. Mensah, Nii Abbey Abbey, P.K. Ofori, F. Mensah, Raphael Darko, J.K. Braimah, Ato Anderson and A.Z. Mahama.

They will leave for Monrovia on Sunday, February 24, 2008, and will be away for four months. The Government of Liberia is funding the trip with support from the United Nations Mission in Liberia.

Mr Edward Dua Agyeman, Ghana's Auditor General, in a pre-departure meeting with the auditors, said the Ghana Audit Service agreed to assist its counterpart in Liberia in the spirit of regional co-operation and urged the auditors to uphold a high level of performance to maintain the reputation of the service.

He said they would assist the General Auditing Commission of Liberia in auditing public institutions like the Ministry of Finance of Liberia and the Social Security and Welfare Corporation.

Mr Agyeman said Liberia approached Ghana for assistance because of her excellent performance in conducting previous international auditing assignments at the African Union and the United Nations for 26 years, and for exhibiting excellence in the training of their Nigerian counterparts at the invitation of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

"You should not go to Liberia and produce a sub-standard performance. You have been taken through an orientation course for this trip. In addition, I will request you to revise your professional methodologies as well as the international accounting and auditing standards."

He advised the delegation to conduct a peer review of each other's work to come up with an excellent job and to comport themselves in respect of their social lives since they would be serving as ambassadors of Ghana.

Nii Abbey Abbey, leader of the team, said Liberia would be a challenge to them, as the country was recovering from civil war but expressed the hope that they would address these challenges to the best of their abilities. He expressed appreciation to the Auditor General for the confidence reposed in them, adding that through the assignment greater collaboration with other English speaking countries would be achieved.