Government must pay more attention to internal auditing to win the fight against corruption, Dr Eric Oduro Osae, Director General, Internal Audit Agency (IAA), has said.
He said the internal audit function was a pre-corruption and preventive task that must be ‘empowered’ not to waste resources in chasing funds that had already been stolen.
“It is better to prevent people from stealing and if we want to do that and do it well, we have to resource Internal Auditors.”
Dr Osae said this at the launch of the IAA’s new website, on Tuesday, in Accra, as part of efforts to support government to reposition its agenda towards fighting corruption.
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…As total infractions hit GHC5.46bn at end of 2019
The Auditor General has discovered that 25 instances of financial irregularity took place at the University of Cape Coast and its various colleges and subsidiaries as at the end of 31st December, 2019.
Corruption Watch’s tabulation of the amount of individual irregularities shows that the infractions involve a total of GHC88,289,417.16. In addition, the amount constitutes 49.09% of irregularities recorded for institutions under the ministry of education.
According to the Auditor General, “…the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ghartey Ampiah entered into a 10 year Build, Own, Operate and Transfer Agreement with KLEOS UK Ltd for the provision of information and communication technology (ICT) services at a cost of $300,000.00 per year totalling $3,000,000.00 for the contract period without seeking approval from the University Council, the Minister of Education and Public Procurement before committing the University to such financial obligation.”
The “contract signed by the Vice Chancellor was only witnessed by the Director of ICT services Dr. Regina Gyampoh-Vidogah. Consequently, the Auditor General recommended that “the Vice Chancellor should submit the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer Agreement (BOOT) with KLEOS UK Ltd to the University Council, Minister of Education and Public Procurement Authority for approval, failing which the sanctions in section 92 (1) of the Public Procurement Act shall be applied.”
“The questions regarding Mr Domelevo’s date of birth which formed the recent basis for the President’s letter were not handled in accordance with the Constitutional directive in Article 23. The actions of the office of the President and the Audit Service affirm our belief that Mr Domelevo has been unfairly targeted,” the Coalition’s Spokesperson said.
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From Right to Left: Mr. Daniel Domelevo (Ex Auditor General); President Akufo-Addo; Justice Anin-Yeboah (Chief Justice)
The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations Against Corruption has requested the Supreme Court of Ghana to determine two cases pending before it on the constitutionality of the Auditor General’s forced ‘accumulated leave’ by President Akufo-Addo.
The group contends that the crux of the issues raised in the two suits are relevant regardless of the current state of affairs; that is the forced retirement of Auditor General Daniel Yaw Domelevo.
“The suits border on the broader issues of whether or not a President could exercise administrative authority over Independent Constitutional Bodies (ICBs). Therefore, it is important for the Supreme Court to deal with these suits expeditiously to prevent any such actions by a future President,” said Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante, Director, Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).
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The tussle between the Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo, and the Audit Service Board has reached a crescendo, with the board writing to inform the appointing authority, the President, that the former has reached retirement age.
This follows the board’s alleged findings that Mr Domelevo had changed his date of birth on the records of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) from June 1, 1960 to June 1, 1961.
“Records made available to the board indicate that your date of retirement was 1st June 2020 and as far as the Audit Service is concerned you are deemed to have retired.
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Speakers at the launch of the End-Line Survey on Public Opinion on the State of Corruption, Public Accountability and Environmental Governance in Ghana conducted by the NCCE, commended the Commission for a good job done in producing the report.
Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Linda Ofori-Kwafo, who reviewed the report praised the Commission for adopting an appropriate project management approach and for adopting a robust research methodology that covered 108 districts in all 16 regions of the country.
Stating that the fight against corruption was yielding some marginal results, Mrs. Ofori-Kwafo noted that the bit about whistle blowers not being safe is damning. She therefore called for more funding for NCCE and effective collaboration between the Commission and state institutions to do more to fight against corruption.
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According to Mrs Juliet Aboagye-Wiafe, President of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Ghana, the work of internal auditors facilitate good corporate governance and compliance. These in turn ‘provide strong inputs for organisational or business sustainability and prevent corporate scandals, fraud and failures.’
Mrs Aboagye-Wiafe reportedly said this at the IIA’s 2019 Annual National Internal Audit and Governance Conference.
In June 2019, Auditor-General Mr. Daniel Yao Domelevo also stated that it is better to prevent corruption. Therefore, making internal auditors independent is one of the control mechanisms that government can put in place to prevent corruption. He even suggested to the Presidency to consider the inclusion of the Director General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) in Government’s Economic Management Team to help control expenditure within certain strategic sectors. He took the view that internal auditors would provide timely information on lapses within the Public Financial Management system to enable the E. M. T. take judicious measures to address identified inefficiencies.
In spite of these authorities speaking favourably on internal auditors, Corruption Watch has come across cases from its investigations in which some internal auditors have allegedly been professionally abused and harassed for refusing to be compromised.
The independence of the Auditor-General’s (A-G’s) office has become a hot topic in Ghana due to frequent removals and appointments by incoming or outgoing Presidents, and the recent clash of the A-G with the board and the board chairman of the Ghana Audit Service.
Importantly, due to the circumstances surrounding the appointment of the current A-G, the two main political parties have unfortunately become entrenched in ways beautifully described by a communication director of a major political party as follows: “They seek to undermine the constitutional office and mandate of the A-G by bringing in their usual NDC-NPP politics.”
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The Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency at the Presidency, Dr Eric Oduro Osae, has called on various institutions in the country to make available the needed resources to their internal auditors to enable them to carry out their mandate effectively.
That, according to him, would reposition internal auditors to be able to carry out their work well and help fight corruption in the country. He made the call at a meeting with heads of internal auditors for the three Northern Regions in Tamale on Monday to acquaint himself with the challenges in their work.
