The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament and Member for Ketu North Constituency Hon. Avedzi, has appealed to the government and all related stakeholders to ensure that, Audit services especially, the Auditor General and its personnel are adequately resourced and motivated in order to prevent them from being influenced.

According to Hon. Avedzi, to be able to fight corruption and avoid accepting bribes and all gestures which might influence their sense of judgment, government as well as stakeholders needs to fuel these departments and it officials with the requisite resources to motivate them in other to discharge their duties accordingly.

This comes after the Auditor General had disclose how some individuals and institutions attempt to induce them with money and other gestures with the view of securing favorable comments from them, at the 8th Annual Accountability Lectures of the Ghana Audit Service as part of its launch of the 2018 Accountability Week celebrations.

According to the Auditor General, people are of the view that, if they make financial offers to auditors, they would in turn give favorable reports about them and in some cases covers their evil deeds up, where he warned them to desist from such act,  saying he and his men will not kowtow to temptations.

On whether the Auditor General is audited himself, Mr. Daniel Yaw Dumelovo indicated that, Section 24 of the Audit Service Act states on Auditing of the office of the Auditor-General, that the accounts of the office of the Auditor-General shall be audited annually and reported upon by an auditor appointed by Parliament.

He further revealed that, Public Servants who earn more than ¢3,727 in salaries will be required to declare their assets, warning that public office holders have a duty to comply with the law.

Thitherto, asset declaration has been associated with politicians, a notion dismissed by the Auditor General; saying the requirement for asset declaration includes all public officers as defined by the Act 550.

He revealed further that, an officer in any public office except the Ghana Armed Forces is required under the law to declare his or her assets or liabilities if his or her salary is equivalent to or higher than the salary of a Director of the Civil Service.

Ghana’s Audit Service is a constitutional body with a seven (7) member governing board, and headed by the Auditor General, also mandated to audit public accounts of Ghana, including all public offices, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, Public Corporations and Organizations established by an Act of Parliament and report same findings to Parliament accordingly, making it the monitoring and accountability organ of the state.

 

Exclusively Newslinegh