Forestry Commission gets new Audit Committee

A five-member Audit Committee for the Forestry Commission has been sworn in with a call on members to adhere to effective audit services.

The committee is a statutory body established under the Public Financial Management Act of Ghana and will serve a four-year term.

It is the mandate of the committee to serve as an advisory service to the public institution to ensure that they implement recommendations from internal audit reports, external audit reports, public accounts reports from parliament and any other monitoring reports.

The committee is chaired by Paul Kwasi Agyemang, with George Wireko Brobbey, Professor Kingsley Oppong, Isaac Agyin Bonney and Senanu Mensah as members.

Inauguration

The Director General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), Dr Eric Oduro Osae, who swore in the members, administered the oaths of secrecy and office.

After that, the outgoing committee handed over essential documents to the new Audit Committee.

In a brief remark, Dr Osae emphasised that the committee, was expected to put management on their toes to ensure that all recommendations issued by the committee were implemented.

He stressed that the committee was not supposed to take over management of the organisation but act as support system.

He advised all public institutions to pay particular attention to audit committees as the committees came in with fresh expertise which would support management to deliver on their expected mandate.

Dr Osae noted that “In most cases if management would listen to internal auditors and audit committees, external auditors would have nothing to write”, as their work was mostly being done to protect the public purse and strengthen control systems.

Support

The Chairman for the Committee, stated that the committee was grounded on ensuring that controls recommended and put in place by the internal auditors were directed at safeguarding the activities of the organisation.

Mr Agyeman stated that the members would also collectively support the internal audit to do their work by helping management to implement all the recommendations as they come up while he called for support from the organisation to do a smooth work.

“The committee is just here primarily to help management execute their mandate and we are ready for it, and look forward to the cooperation needed to execute our mandate,” he said.