Time to amend Internal Audit Agency Act - Dr. Eric Osae advocates

The Internal Audit Agency (IAA) wants its Act amended to give the Agency the control over inter­nal auditors in public institutions in order for the country to make headway in the financial leakage in the institutions.

The Director-General of the IAA, Dr Eric Oduro Osae, said so far as internal auditors remained at the beck and call of their bosses, the irregularities that have plagued the institutions would persist.

At a media training work­shop in Accra on the Auditor-General’s report, he said: “The call we are making is that government should tighten the internal audit laws by complet­ing the restructuring of internal audit processes by ensuring that an amendment to the IAA law is passed quickly so that internal auditors are well-grounded and resourced to be able to prevent irregularities."

“They are the gatekeepers and if they are not well resourced and independent and the legisla­tion supporting their work is not tightened, we will continue to see these irregularities,” he said.

The training, organised by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) with funding from the Hewlett Foundation, aimed to equip journalists with the skills to appreciate and accurately report on the auditor-general reports.

Dr Oduro said the terms and condition of internal auditors must also be enhanced to prevent them from being professionally abused by their employers.

According to him, Ghana’s response to the plunder to state funds have been reactionary instead of being preventive.

“We should emphasise preven­tion of the irregularities instead of waiting for the horses to bolt before we chase them.

“Normally, instead of tighten­ing control systems and empow­ering internal auditors so that they’ll be able to prevent this irregularities, we rather empower external auditors who come in after the harm has been caused,” he observed.

With the 2024 general election in sight, Dr Osae said the political parties must commit to enhancing the status of the IAA if it minded the fight against corruption and waste in the public sector.

In its current state, Dr Osae said the IAA does not have prosecutorial powers to prosecute persons who would abuse their offices as only the Attorney-Gen­eral has the mandate to.

In the conversation of consti­tutional review, Dr Osae said his outfit must be considered as one which needs the prosecutorial power.

“We have been using the post facto approach all these years and irregularities and corruption has not reduced.

“This time around, let us change the narrative, start from the base, empower internal audi­tors, resource them so that they are able to prevent the irregulari­ties because if we are not able to prevent irregularities at the insti­tutional level, we should expect higher levels of irregularities,” he stated.

The Auditor-General’s report has been replete with irregularities across cash, stores, procurement, contracts among other areas resulting in the embezzlement of billions of cedis.

The Executive Secretary of the GACC, Beauty Nartey, said the Coalition said effective dissemination of the AG’s report requires comprehensive under­standing.

She said if journalist under­stood the reports, it would help in their reportage, thereby increasing transparency and accountability around public financial manage­ment.3