Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
VICE PRESIDENT Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has given thumbs up to the Audit Service for its efforts in recent times.
For the past 10 years since the Auditor-General started issuing reports of the audited accounts of public sector institutions to Parliament, he insists the recent one has been the best.
He has, therefore, commended the board, management and staff as deserving of commendation since according to him, they did an excellent work.
This was when he spoke at the Second Annual District Auditors’ Conference in Accra yesterday.
He, therefore, reiterated the government’s resolve to provide the necessary logistical support to the Service in order to operate independently as required by the Constitution of Ghana.
The theme for the conference, “Disallowance and Surcharge – The Role of the District Auditor” provided an opportunity for staff of the Audit Service to discuss the mandate given to the Auditor-General under Article 187 of the 1992 Constitution to disallow and surcharge public officials implicated in financial misappropriation and recover the money to the state.
In the 2021 Auditor-General’s Report to Parliament, it came to light that the state lost some GH¢17.5 billion after the A-G audited the accounts of public boards, corporations and other statutory institutions.
The irregularities were mainly in the form of cash, tax, payroll fraud, debts and loans, stores, procurement and contracts, rent and credit power and sales.
The report compelled some civil society organisations and individuals to protest against the Auditor-General and demanded that he should surcharge those involved in the financial malpractices in order to pay for the losses to the state.
For government to tackle the issue of bribery and corruption in the public sector, Dr. Bawumia said, the Akufo-Addo’s administration had to roll out various digitisation initiatives at some public sector institutions, including online vehicle registration and licensing at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority as a classic example.
Other public sector institutions that witnessed extensive digitisation of their operations included the Passport Office, Tema Port, National Health Insurance Authority, Registrar General’s Department and the introduction of the Ghana.gov portal, which enabled individuals and corporate entities to access government services and make payments electronically, he said.
Apart from that, he said government also increased budgetary allocations to some anti-corruption institutions including the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Parliament of Ghana, Economic and Organised Crime Office, Ghana Police Service and the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Those interventions, the Vice President said, were intended to boost the fight against corruption and enhance productivity of the public sector institutions.
On his part, Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, underscored the need for closer collaboration between his office and that of the Auditor-General in order to recover financial losses suffered by the state.
For instance, he said his office had established a special team to coordinate and follow up with the Auditor-General’s Office on relevant information towards recovering public funds.
In this era of digital technology, Mr. Dame urged the Audit Service to embrace digitisation across its district and regional offices to enhance operations.
He lauded the Service for initiating an “Audit Implementation System”- a digital platform that reduces human intervention in auditing.
He was of the conviction that when the system is fully implemented, it would facilitate the data handling of Auditors and significantly improve service delivery.
BY Charles Takyi-Boadu