Auditor-General: We’re custodians of accountability but weakened by political interference

The Audit Service has stated that internal auditors need autonomy to help end corruption in the country because they were the custodians of accountability but weakened by “employer dominance and political interference”.

It noted that it must be granted full independence to deliver on its mandate to save the nation from losses it has been incurring over the years and should not be coerced into producing shoddy works.

Yao Domelevo, the Auditor-General, made this known when he opened the third Bi-Annual Conference of Regional Auditors in Ho in the Volta Region on the theme: ‘In the Era of Disallowance and Surcharge, the Role of the Regional Auditors’ to offer  the participants an engagement with stakeholders, and strategise towards making the Service more effective and efficient.

According to him, “we need to take a second look at internal audit, they can be likened to eyes and ears of management, they are with the institution, can save the country from losses incurring over the years but weakened and don’t have independence to do their work.

“The burden of audit lay on shoulders of internal audit unit, and must show strength in face of work related challenges, must not be threatened into producing shoddy work, let’s not take risk associated with our office as an excuse of non-performance since it is part of occupational hazard, accept and drive on for God and for Country, and not for our personal interest.

“The concept of protecting public purse hinges on the government’s fiscal responsibility, strategic allocation of resources, efficient and effective service delivery, elimination of corruption, major threat that must be fought.

“Let’s not be afraid in fighting corruption because when we fight corruption, it will fight you back, when they praise us too much it means you are a bad auditor, the public must collaborate more with the service, it was not formed to witch-hunt individuals and organisations,” Mr Domelevo pointed out.

 Raphael Darku, Volta Regional Auditor, lamented that institutions were repeating same infractions year after year with no significant improvement, and was hopeful audit committees at various Assemblies would work effectively and efficiently to minimise infractions and violations. -GNA