The Head of the Project Coordination and Monitoring Unit at the Internal Audit Agency, IAA, Alhassan Fuseini has said, the agency checks over the years have revealed that most public sector institutions, particularly in the health and education sectors are not making use of the internal audit facilities.
This, Mr Fuseini noted gives rise to the ghost names and other expenses unaccounted for.
He added that lower remuneration of internal audit agencies staff is not helping the IAA to discharge its oversight and monitoring mandate.
He was speaking at the Ghana Integrity Initiative Annual Accountability Forum which focuses on promoting service delivery through social accountability with an emphasis on health and education.
“Just like other institutions, the internal audit agency has its own challenges. The internal audit agency act which is about 50 years now is yet to see a major amendment, and if possible changes.
This makes it very difficult to actually situate certain issues within our current environment. It is actually a limiting factor for the Agency to work and ensure that we eliminate corruption in this country.
Another challenge is the recruitment of internal auditors across the country including the health and education sector. They are being recruited by different institutions and we the internal audit agency have to monitor them and set the standard for them.
This actually has a problem and a challenge for us.
Their salaries are not anything to write home about if gatekeepers are not properly resourced how can they watch those who are actually dipping their hands into the public purse?”
