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Audit bodies chase Mental Health Authority

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. 

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CW Report: How Airport Company, Ghana Post and Graphic managers sat on workers’ pensions and taxes

The Auditor-General has indicted some public companies and corporations for mishandling workers funds as well as taxes they should have paid to the Ghana Revenue Authority. 

The Auditor-General cites the Ghana Post Company Limited, Ghana Airport Company, Graphic Communications Group Limited, The New Times Corporation (popularly called Ghanaian Times) and the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited (AESL) for malpractices including failing to pay taxes, pensions and insurance deductions to respective institutions and funds.

It must be stated that many of the findings relate to occurrences in 2017, 2018 and 2019 financial years even though the details are captured in the Report of the Auditor General on the Public Accounts of Ghana – Public Boards, Corporations and Other Statutory Institutions for the year ended 31 December 2020.

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The Auditor-General reveals that the total financial irregularities found in this round of audit at public boards, corporations and other institutions stood at GH¢12,856,172,626 as at the end of December 2020.

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MDAs financial infractions decline by 32% in 2020

Financial infractions by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) declined by 32 percent in 2020, compared to the previous year, the Director General of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae has revealed.

Speaking at the 2021 Annual Conference of Internal Auditors, with a focus on Sustaining Internal Controls; Risk Management and Business Continuity in the Public Sector, the Director General said that the Internal Audit Agency, working through internal auditors and audit committees across the country saved the nation GH¢235,229,749.08 in 2020 fiscal year.

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