Mr Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, on Thursday advised Internal Auditors working in Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDA’s) not to engage in acts that would discredit them in the performance of their duties.

He urged them to place diligence, honesty and integrity high in their professional values and not to use information acquired during audits for personal gains but should be prudent in the use of such information.

The Minister gave this advice at a two day National Conference of Internal Auditors of MMDAs in Bolgatanga where participants were deliberating on issues that bothered on their work.

He said Internal Auditors held the key to drawing the attention of management, under whom they worked, to any inadequacies an institution they worked with faced.

“The situation where Government is devoting significant amounts of its budget to personal emoluments means that there is little left for investment, maintenance and administration”.

He reminded them to ensure effective utilization of the scarce resources of MMDAs and to be guarded by their roles in evaluating the effectiveness of internal control systems, contribute to ongoing effectiveness and monitor risk related events to ensure that such public institutions achieved their desired objectives.

Mr Christian Ofori, Chairman of Internal Auditors Association (IAA), in a welcome address, enumerated the difficulties internal auditors faced in their line of duties such as poor conditions of service and non acceptance in various institutions.

He called on stakeholders to bring those issues on board for their deliberations and together find amicable solutions to them.

He mentioned that through hard work of internal auditors, some MMDAs had made significant strides in their revenue mobilization, citing Ho in the Volta Region as an example.

He said there were a lot of benefits if public institutions made use of internal auditors.

Mr Atompoya Daniel, Chief Internal Auditor, Upper East Regional Coordinating Council, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said stakeholders would discuss how they work with the MMDAs in a cordial and peaceful manner to bring development to the country.