Internal Auditors call for better service conditions

Koforidua, Oct 6, GNA - The Association of Internal Auditors in Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), have called for better conditions of service to effectively manage government resources at the Assemblies.

The Association said the exclusion of internal auditors from management meetings, projects management and capacity building for key staff of the Assemblies did not support the effective operation of internal auditors.

Mr Paul Ankrah, the National President of the Association, who made the call at the opening of a two-day Delegates Conference in Koforidua noted that the current relationship between the managements of the various MMDAs, especially the Chief Executives and the Internal Auditors, was not good to achieve the set objectives.

According to the President, by the nature of their work,' we easily become target of hatred in the assemblies resulting in irrational transfers of internal auditors who are only performing their core duties of ensuring the prudent use of national resources'.

He mentioned the Chief Executives and the Coordinating Directors of the MMDAs specifically, as those who often did not co-operate with them in the performance of their duties, thereby sidelining them in programmes, such as management meetings, budgeting and projects management.

Mr Ankrah, therefore, urged the Internal Auditors Agency (IAA) to address those issues to ensure a defined role and status of internal auditors at the Assemblies, to enable them perform their core function of safeguarding the national purse at their various Assemblies.

He also appealed to the IAA to ensure that all the District Assemblies had in place the Audit Report Implementation Committee (ARIC) as stipulated by the law to ensure that the quarterly internal audit reports from the Assemblies were implemented to the letter.

The Deputy-Director-General of the IAA, Mr Ransford Agyei, assured the conference that his outfit was working to improve the conditions of the internal auditors, including putting measures in place to protect internal auditors from transfers ignited by the chief executives.

He also announced that, plans were far advanced to synchronize their working conditions with those of other internal auditors at the Controller and Accountant-General's Department, and all other public sector internal auditors.

As part of the conference, new national leaders were elected to steer the affairs of the Association for the next two years.

They included Nana Yaw Adusei, as President, John K. Okrah, Secretary, with Ridwan Kokroko, Hardi Mohammed and Lucio Nangnisie as Organizer, Treasurer and Financial Secretary respectively.

GNA