Give Internal Auditors percentage of money they recover – Justice Oppong

Justice Nana Barima Yaw Kodie Oppong, Court of Appeal Judge, has suggested that Internal Auditors should be given a percentage of all monies they recover or save from public financial infractions.

He said Internal Auditors operation had reduced financial irregularities in public institutions and contributed to the development of the country.

Justice Oppong said this on Wednesday at the opening of this year’s Annual Internal Audit Conference in Accra, organised by the Internal Audit Agency.

The conference was on the theme “Consolidating Democratic Governance and Accountability; Role of Internal Auditors.”

The conference brought together key stakeholders in the public sector internal audit space, including heads of public institutions and audit committees, among others, to chart the way forward towards improving public sector internal audit performance.

The 2023 Auditor-Generals report revealed that Internal Auditors vigilance in public institutions saved the country GH¢5.4 billion from financial irregularities.

The Court of Appeal Judge called for an enhanced awards scheme for internal auditors to serve as incentives for their hard work on preventing financial leakages in the public sector.

Justice Oppong, also the Mawerehene of Akyem Abuakwa, said the role of internal auditors in the country was to ensure that democratic values were premised on good corporate governance.

This involves establishing laid-down policies, procedures, and institutions and ensuring the practice of such policies, procedures, and institutions.

Justice Oppong, also the Director of the Ghana School of Law, called for the independence of Internal Auditors to hold public institutions accountable and prevent corruption practices.

He urged internal auditors to get involved in the country’s electoral processes and should be willing to assist in the collation of results to ensure free and fair elections.

“Internal Auditors must be placed to ensure the integrity of the electoral activities and not fold their “arms and waists” to be told before involving themselves in the processes,” he said.

Dr Eric Osae, Director General, Internal Audit Agency, said the Agency was collaborating with the Institute of Internal Auditors, Ghana, to get more Chartered Internal Auditors into the public sector by encouraging them to register and write the professional examinations. 

He said the Agency had received various technical and funding support from development partners to, among others, automate public sector internal audit practice and mainstream enterprise risk management into the operations of public sector institutions.

Dr Osae advised the leadership of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission and other tertiary institutions to, as a matter of urgency, review their statutes to align them with the Auditing and Financial requirements of the Public Financial Management Act of Ghana 2016 (Act 921) and the Public Financial Regulations 2019 (L.I. 2078). 

Source: GNA

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