Ghana Audit Service - audit service organises a symposium for the media

Audit Service Organises a Symposium for the Media

Audit Service, Ministries

The Audit Service has organised a symposium for the media, an important stakeholder of the Service. The purpose of the symposium was to present an overview of the audit reports that the Auditor-General had presented to Parliament to the media to shape the content of their reporting.

In giving his opening comments, the Auditor-General, Mr. Daniel Yaw Domelevo, said that the Audit Service is mandated to render service to the public but we cannot reach the public without the media. He added that the media and the Service have a collective responsibility to protect the public purse and effective collaboration would help achieve this goal.

The Auditor-General took the opportunity to educate the media on the mandate of the Auditor-General as well as the processes in producing an audit report. He included in his remarks that according to Section 23 of the Audit Service Act 2000, the Auditor-General is required to publish the audit reports as soon as he submits to the Speaker of Parliament and not after Parliament has considered it on the floor of the House.

The Deputy Auditors-General, Messrs George S. Winful, Johnson Asiedu Akuamoah and Blessed Baffuor-Atta made presentations from the Auditor General’s reports on Ministries Departments and Agencies, Public Boards, Corporations and Other Statutory Institutions and District Assemblies.

The presenters shared some of the real challenges the Service grapples with annually including the fact that some officials responsible for instituting and enforcing controls often preside over irregularities; ineffective oversight by audit committees resulting in non-implementation of audit recommendations; ineffective internal auditing as well as social accountability mechanisms to hold Management accountable not fully operational.

The Auditor-General and his deputies responded to concerns raised by the media from the presentations.

Present at the symposium were the Deputy Auditor-General, Mrs. Roberta Assiamah-Appiah, some Assistant Auditors-General, Directors as well as some staff of the Service.