The Director of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr Eric Oduro Osae has observed that the conditions of service for internal auditors in Ghana are appalling.
He says they are not motivated enough to carry out their work and further assured that his office is working with the government to address this situation.
“The internal auditors are not motivated enough. Their conditions of service are appalling, we are working with the government to help change that” he said.
“We have used external people to remove ghost names from the public payroll and that is not the solution. Use the internal auditors within the company to expunge the names,” Dr Oduro Osae further intimated on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday September 3, while contributing to a discussion on the 2021 Auditor-General’s report which has uncovered several procurement infractions.
A private legal practitioner Mr Gordon Edudzi Tameklo who also spoke on the same programme raised concerns against the refusal of the Auditor-General to disallow and surcharge.
He said the Supreme Court has ruled that the Auditor-General should surcharge persons engaged in infractions as captured in the report but over the past two years, that has not been done.
The failure to do so is contempt of the apex court, he said.
“He has adopted the posture of Pontius Pilate and has washed his hands off the findings,” Mr Tameklo said.
He added “His failure to disallow and surcharge is contemptuous of the Supreme Court and you know that if you violate the Supreme Court order you can be removed from office.”
Mr Tameklo who is a member of the NDC further asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to prosecute his appointees who have been captured in the report for procurement breaches.
He intimated that some officials of the past National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration are being prosecuted by the current government for procurement breaches but the same action has not been taken against officials of the NPP government who have been captured as having violated the procurement laws.
He said “I am aware of officials of the NDC who are being prosecuted for procurement breaches. Now we have appointees of Akufo-Addo who have breached the PPA Act, no sanctions have been taken against them.
“The question boils down to leadership, either Akufo-Addo is not in charge of this country or he is an accomplice in this whole engagement.
“If every year the level of irregularities keep increasing under your watch and you are not taking any actions to deal with it then you are creating the image of being an accomplice.”
Report_of_the_Auditor-General_on_the_Public_Accounts_of_Ghana_-_Ministries,_Departments_and_other_Agencies_for_the_year_ended_31_December_2021
The report mentioned among other things that the Ministry of Finance failed to recover loans and advances of GH¢11,005,582.00 given to public sector workers within the stipulated period.
“We recommended that the Chief Director of the Ministry should liaise with the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department to have the outstanding amounts deducted from the salaries of the staff involved.
“Five accounts of the Ministry were garnished in 2021 as a result of cases brought against other government institutions. The garnishee order resulted in the accounts not being accessible to the Ministry.
“We recommended that the Chief Director should engage the Attorney General on how the accounts could be assessed and also ensure that the cause of the garnishee is investigated, and appropriate sanctions applied to anyone found culpable.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
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