Preserve the integrity and commitment of Audit Service-Quartey

The Acting Auditor-General of the Audit Service, Mr. Richard Quartey, has asked auditors in Ghana to preserve the integrity and commitment of the service and the pursuit of good governance and accountability in the discharge of their duties.

According to him, “Let us aspire to fulfill the ideal of the corporate vision of becoming one of the leading supreme audit institutions in the world, delivering professional, excellent and cost effective auditing services. This is a vaunted legacy that we can also bequeath to the generations that shall follow us, and celebrate the 200th anniversary of Audit Service”.

Mr. Quartey made the appealed at the launch of the Audit Service centenary celebrations in Accra. The 100th anniversary will be marked with a series of activities all over the ten regions of the country, and will be themed “A Century of Public Sector Auditing-Defining New Frontiers”.

The 100th anniversary will be in November 2009, this year, which activities include: public lectures, conferences, seminars, radio/TV shows, health walk - dubbed 'Accountability Walk', clean-up exercises, fun games and donations to some charitable organizations.

While August 2010 will be the climax of the celebrations, with Special Anniversary Durbar, float, press soiree and Dinner/Dance and Awards Night

The Acting Auditor-General announced that the service was intended to organize Departmental Awards for Best Audit Report and award Best Department, Best District, Best Worker, Best District Auditor, Best Regional Auditor and also present other Special Awards for Excellence for their tremendous contribution to the development of auditing in the country.

Mr. Quartey added that a new Audit Service cloth as well as the centenary cloth would be printed and out-doored soon.

He was quick to disclose that the service was intending to shoot various documentaries to tell the story about their 100 years existent and, therefore, appealed to both present and past staff to avail themselves of this noble task.

Indeed, the Audit Service commenced work in the country as the Gold Coast Audit Department in 1910, and was later christened the Auditor-General's Department in 1954 and then to the Audit Service in 1969.

Since 1910, the service had had 10 substantive heads with the late Mr. Ahenkora Osei as the first Ghanaian Auditor-General from 1963 to 1998.