Auditor-General presents 12 statutory reports to Parliament - First in 10 years

The Audit Service has, for the first time in 10 years, presented to Parliament all the 12 statutory Auditor-General’s Reports, including four performance audit reports required to be made available to the legislature by June 30, each year.

The acting Auditor General, Mr Johnson Akuamoah-Asiedu, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the submission of all the reports before the June 30 deadline was a remarkable feat that had not been achieved in the country in the last 10 years.

He explained that the reports would guide lawmakers in holding public office holders accountable.

They would also help especially members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament who relied on such reports in the execution of PAC’s mandate.

Reports

The 12 reports include the Report of the Auditor-General on the Consolidated statements of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payments of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for year ended 31 December, 2020; Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana: Public Boards, Corporations and other statutory Institutions for the period ended 31 December, 2020; Report of the Auditor-General on the Accounts of District Assemblies for the year ended 31 December, 2020; Report of the Auditor-General on the management and utilisation of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund and other statutory funds for the year ended 31 December, 2020.

Others are the Report of the Auditor-General on Pre-University Educational Institutions for the financial year ended 31 December, 2020; Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana: Technical Universities for the year ended 31 December, 2020; Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana, Ministries, Departments and other Agencies for the financial year ended 31 December, 2020, and Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Sector Accounts of Ghana (Central Government) for the year ended 31 December, 2020.

The rest are the Performance Audit Report of the Auditor-General on Selected Road Works in the Greater Kumasi Metropolis; Performance Audit Report of the Auditor-General on the Construction of 30, 1000MT Warehouses; Performance Audit Report of the Auditor-General on the Provision of Adoption Services by the Central Adoption Authority and the Department of Social Welfare, and the Performance Audit Report of the Auditor-General on Regulating Reclamation Activities at Small-Scale Mining Sites.

Mr Akuamoah-Asiedu expressed appreciation to the board of the Audit Service for assisting the service to train about 1,000 officers in active service within the last two months, including assistant auditors and senior auditors.

An additional 600 officers, including Principal Auditors, he said, would also undergo training in the coming weeks.

Collaboration

Mr Akuamoah-Asiedu said his office was focused on forging the right partnerships with stakeholders, especially the members of PAC who act on audit reports to ensure discipline among public officials when expending public resources.

To help deepen such partnerships, he said, a two-day retreat was organised for members of PAC last month to discuss the 2020 Auditor-General’s report laid before Parliament.

The move, he said, was in respect of Article 187 (6) of the Constitution, which charges Parliament to “debate the Report of the Auditor-General and appoint, where necessary, in the public interest, a committee to deal with any matters arising from it”.

The acting Auditor-General noted that Parliament’s Standing Order 165 (2) had assigned the PAC to examine the audited accounts of the government, showing sums of money granted by Parliament to meet public expenditure and of such other accounts laid before Parliament.

“We have now deepened our relations with PAC because it will work on our reports; so immediately we submitted all the 12 reports to Parliament, we had a meeting with PAC members and answered their questions to help them understand,” he said.