Corruption Watch has discovered that the Mental Health Authority (MHA) is becoming a serial offender in effectively accounting for public funds allocated to it. 

The Auditor-General, for instance, questions the whereabouts of almost 200 thousand Ghana cedis of funds disbursed to the MHA in recent years.

In addition, the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) has shamed the MHA for failing to submit three consecutive quarterly internal audit reports and one annual internal audit work plan. 

The IAA insists that the submission of various reports and plans to the Agency provides “an assurance that existing control systems are working in the form and manner required.”

Reacting, Professor Akwasi Osei, the Chief Executive of the MHA, said he was not aware that the IAA had shamed the MHA for audit infractions. Besides, doubted the IAA’s claim that the MHA had not submitted internal audit work plan and reports, saying he needed to confirm from his team whether they did not submit the reports. 

In a telephone interview with Corruption Watch on Tuesday, Professor Osei disagreed with the recommendations of the Auditor-General that he should refund unaccounted funds that had been disbursed to the MHA’s partners.