Auditors urged to exhibit high sense of professionalism

Accra, Aug. 13, GNA - Mrs. Ruby Nyako, Acting Auditor-General, on Friday urged African Auditors to exhibit a high sense of professionalism in their work to justify the huge amount of state resources used in training them.

Addressing the closing ceremony of a two-week regional training course for 24 state audit officers, in Accra, Mrs. Nyako reminded them that their assignment as public officers required a high level of efficiency since their judgement could make or mar a public institution.

The Acting Auditor-General called on auditors in Africa to develop their professional skills in Supreme Audit Institutions practices, to be at par with their counterparts in the advanced countries, stressing periodic training and refresher courses as a means to that end.

Supreme Audit Institutions are a set of international conventions, laws and accepted practices that are used in the auditing of state and public institutions like Parliament, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA's).

These Auditing Institutions audit the performance of monies collected by governments and how the monies are used for the purpose for which they are collected in the framework of the overall national development agenda.

The 24 participants from 13 African countries were taken through topics including Knowledge of an Organisation, Analytical Procedures, Risk Assessment, and Sampling Techniques and Using the Work of other Auditors and Experts.

The Ghana Audit Service (GAS) hosted the course, organised by the Africa Region of International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions - English Speaking Countries (AFROSAI-E), with sponsorship from the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.

It attracted facilitators from Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Malawi, and the Netherlands.

Mrs. Nyako said public account auditors would only remain in their job if the stakeholders had confidence in the professional discharge of their duties and achieved results.

She commended the participants on their enthusiastic participation in the course, and urged them to utilise the knowledge acquired to impact on their professional performance to render good quality service. Mr. Martin Abbink, an Audit Manager in the Netherlands and a facilitator, underlined the essence of transparency in public account management saying that the facilitating countries felt it was great to develop skills in ensuring such transparency.

"Economic policies like economic crimes do not stop with borders, so the need to develop knowledge and form networks," Mr. Abbink said. Besides the distribution of certificates to the participants, each of the course facilitators was decorated with a rich kente muffler on which their names were embossed beautifully in blue, yellow and red colours.