Concerted effort needed in corruption fight
The Dean of the School of Continuing and Distance Education, College of Education, University of Ghana, Professor Olivia Kwapong, has tasked citizens to champion the fight against corruption at all levels to build a better nation to meet their hopes and aspirations.
“As citizens of this country, we must perceive fighting corruption is best done by the heart but not the law, interestingly, the people who enact laws and expect to enforce them, take advantage of the knowledge of loopholes to circumvent regulations in their interest,” she bemoaned.
Prof. Kwapong said sustaining internal controls and managing risk in public sector was the responsibility of all and stressed on the need for concerted effort to curb the canker so as to accelerate growth and development of the country.
She made the call when she spoke on the theme: ‘Sustaining Internal Control, Risk Management and Business Continuity in the Public Sector – The Role of Stakeholders’ in Accra.
The three-day conference was flagship programme organised by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) in fulfilment of mandate of providing means for keeping covered entities informed about challenges, problems and control deficiencies in execution of Government Business.
Prof. Kwapong observed that the mandate of the agency was to coordinate, facilitate, provide quality assurance for internal auditing and opportunity to draw key audiences who managed public resources to discuss issues of concern.
“What we all need is an attitudinal change to grow and develop patriotic, honest, sincere values, character that exhibit high levels of integrity which must apply to both auditors and entire civil society to re-work our mindsets since corruption is with us.
“Hence, we should not point fingers at anyone but rather point to ourselves and fix it by changing our attitude from greed, avarice and selfishness to honesty, sincerity, selflessness are values we need to sustain internal controls and fight corruption,” Prof. Kwapong postulated.
Prof. Boasiako Omane-Antwi, a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Pentecost University, urged stakeholders to ensure they managed their auditing capacity, including its leadership and individual’s behavior.
He challenged the agency to ensure values, heart and mindset of individuals in various entities were covered to effect change and cautioned that “if we do not get people with the right mindset and heart, no matter what controls we put in place, we will still have challenges, problems and corruption will be an uphill task to tackle”. -GNA