MDAs Schooled On Accountability

Yaw Sifah

About 24 representatives from some selected Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have attended a four-day symposium on governance, accountability and performance reporting.

The representatives, who were drawn from the Commission For Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ghana Police Service, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Controller and Accountant General's Department and the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, among others, would examine key accountability concepts, theories and processes during the symposium.

The symposium, which is being organised by the Audit Service in collaboration with the Canadian Comprehensive Audit Foundation, would offer the participants the opportunity to explore measures to control an organisation and learn risk management in the accountability process.

, the Assistant Auditor General at Audit Service, who opened the symposium, noted that national resources were limited, adding that it was time to focus on results to ensure sound utilization of resources.

“Resources have to be used effectively but unfortunately in some cases, officials can not account for these resources,” he added.

He called on officials at the Ministries, Departments and Assemblies to embrace risk management culture, noting, “Unfortunately, there are no conscious efforts to identify risks and no work on them in some of these essential bodies.

According to him, the Auditor General's Department prevented the mismanagement of resources in the country.

“We do not go in to find faults when we carry out audits but it is gratifying to note that we are uncovering a lot of things that would not have been exposed,” he added.

Richard Quartey, the Acting Auditor-General, commended the Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation for supporting the audit service to ensure accountability in Ghana.

He was hopeful that at the end of the symposium, participants would acquire the knowledge that would help their institutions and the audit service to work together with better understanding of performance auditing.

The Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation was established in 1980 with a mandate to promote the concept of comprehensive auditing, governance and management.

In the past years, senior auditors from Ghana have been invited to Canada for training.

Mr. Quartey revealed that the initiative had helped Ghanaian auditors to acquire knowledge and experience in audit methodologies, techniques and practices.

By Emelia Ennin Abbey