Annual Internal Audit Conference opens in Accra
The Annual Internal Audit Conference to provide a platform for key stakeholders in the fiscal and audit sector to chart plans and robust mechanisms to ensure judicious use of national resources, has opened in Accra.
The two-day dialogue, being organised by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) was on the theme: “Safeguarding National Resources through effective Public Financial Management.”
Over thousand participants drawn from both public and private institutions across the country are attending the event.
Opening the conference, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in a speech read onhis behalf said government was committed to improving the condition of service and the general working conditions of employees in the public sector to enhance efficiency.
He said: “Government is aware of the frustrations and sometimes disappointment of staff of the public sector in terms of compensation, which sometimes engender all sorts of problems.”
“It is also important to state that productivity in the public sector remains an issue of greater concern to me. It is important to note that when time and other resources under our control are not efficiently utilised, revenue generations becomes a problem, compensation of staff become affected.
“…The vicious cycle of inadequate resources, low productivity and low compensation continues. We need to break this jinx and I believe you, as key players of Public Financial Management System, would come out with solutions for our considerations,” he added.
President Nana Akufo-Addo said the internal audit functions had become increasingly vital in achieving objectives of government and that of the private sector institutions.
Mr Ransford Agyei, the Acting Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, said the IAA has the mandate to ensure quality professional practice of internal auditing in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs).
He said the Agency, having worked for more than 12 years had positioned itself, to assist MDAs and MMDAs to implement good corporate governance practices that would ensure the safeguarding of national resources.
It would also secure economic, effective and efficient use of those resources to facilitate the achievement of organisational and national objectives.
He said the Internal Audit Agency was poised to roll out prudent “preventive and more risk-focused programmes to bolster internal auditing in the public sector.
“The Agency leads and collaborates with other institutions under the National Anti-Corruption Plan,” to achieve its goals.
Mr Agyei said, the Agency continued to train its officials to make them more efficient for the task and to assist internal auditors in public institutions to fulfil their requirement to ensure an improved performance of the institutions.
Dr Esther Oduraa Ofei-Aboagye, a Researcher in Public Administration and Local Governance and the Chairperson for the event, said effective public financial management was crucial for good governance and the programme was very critical for Ghana’s economy.
She said improved delivery of public goods and services was critical for the industrial growth of every country.
She said it was commendable that Ghana had a new Public Financial Management (PMF) Act 2016, (Act 921) to strengthen public financial management system.
Dr Ofei-Aboagye explains that the PMF Act would mitigate fiscal indiscipline and ensure proper management of public resources for economic growth.
“Efficient public financial management is central to creating a relationship of mutual trust and shared consensus between government and citizens that is at the core of the development,” she added.
She, therefore, urged the participants to engage fully with each other to conceive a strong apparatus to protect the public purse.
Various speakers were billed to lecture on topics such as “Effective Public Financial Management; Key to National Development”, “The Role of the Internal Auditor in Embedding Effective Good Governance in Public Sector” and “The Public Financial Management Law and the Public Officer”.
Source: GNA