Audit Service is the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of Ghana and one of the monitoring and accountability organs of the state. It is a Public Service institution set up as the machinery by which the Auditor-General executes his mandate. The 1992 Constitution (Articles 184, 187 and 286) has established a broad mandate for the Auditor-General to carry out.

These are summarised as follows:

1. To audit the public accounts of Ghana and any other public office including

• the Courts,
• the Central and Local Government Administrations,
• public universities and public institutions of like nature,
• any public corporation or other body or organisation established by an Act of Parliament,
• statement of the Central Bank’s foreign exchange receipts and payments or transfers in and outside Ghana.

2. Take into custody written declarations of all properties (assets owned) and or liabilities owed by persons who hold public offices.

3. Determine and approve the form or manner that public accounts shall be kept.

4. Submit audit reports on the public accounts of Ghana and the statement of the Central Bank’s foreign exchange receipts and payments or transfers to Parliament. In these reports, the Auditor-General shall draw attention to irregularities in the accounts audited and make appropriate recommendations.

5. May disallow any item of expenditure contrary to law and surcharge:

• the amount of any expenditure disallowed against the person responsible for incurring or authorising the expenditure; or
• any sum which has not been duly brought into account, upon the person by whom the sum ought to have been brought into account; or
• the amount of any loss or deficiency, upon any person by whose negligence or misconduct the loss or deficiency has been incurred.