Audit Committees must be resourced to function

Government has been urged to resource the Audit Report Implementation Committee (ARIC) at the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to help them function effectively.

Mr Simon Bokor, Dean of Management, Development and Training at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), said ARIC as a statutory body backed by various legislative instruments including the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584) and Internal Audit Agency Act, 2003 (Act 658) was mandated to ensure the implementation of the audit recommendations of the Auditor-General.

He said to this effect, it must have a permanent secretariat and logistics in order to monitor the activities of the MMDAs to ensure judicious use of public resources.

Mr Bokor expressed these concerns at a capacity-building workshop in Takoradi for presiding members (PM) who served as chairpersons for ARIC at the MMDAs.

The training programme was aimed at enhancing the knowledge of chairpersons of ARIC to improve accountability in public institutions and transparency at the local level.

It is a mentoring programme for all PMS in the 22 MMDAs in the Region under the Ghana-France Cooperation Agreement.

The ILGS is implementing the Component Two of the Agreement which started in 2014 and would end in 2017.

Mr. Alexander Zormelo, Regional Head of the Internal Audit Units, said the Committee was supposed to establish internal control measures to ensure accountability at the MMDAs.

“You must work diligently to eliminate all the ills in the assemblies to ensure financial prudence,” he advised.

He noted that the chairpersons of ARIC convenes and presides over meetings and ensures that the minutes of the previous meetings have been distributed to all members seven clear days before the next meeting.

The Regional Internal Auditor entreated PMs to be firm, knowledgeable and understand all the accounting records of the Assembly to prevent any financial fraud.

Mr. Solomon Asiedu, Regional Chief Director, asked the PMs to work in harmony with other management members of the Assembly to avoid unhealthy audit queries.

The membership of ARIC included Presiding Members who are chairpersons, chief executives, a representative of Finance and Administrative Sub-committee, an external representative appointed by the Internal Audit Agency and coordinating director who acts as the Secretary to the Committee.

Out of 22 Presiding Members in the Region, 19 availed themselves for the training except Shama, Sekondi-Takoradi and Nzema East Municipality.

The participants expressed their appreciation to the French Government and ILGS for the opportunity to upgrade their knowledge and skills to perform creditably.