International Federation of Women Accountants meets
The first lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, has encouraged civil society groups, to take key interest in the organisation of workshops to educate the public on corruption.
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She said public awareness of the issue would help keep citizens informed about their rights and serve as a powerful tool for change.
“Sharing the success stories of millions of individuals, particularly women, in fighting corruption in their everyday lives can encourage and challenge others,” Mrs Mahama stated.
Conference
The First Lady made the remarks in a speech read on her behalf by a Deputy Minister of Finance (MoF), Ms Mona Quartey, at the opening ceremony of the International Federation of Women Accountants (IFWA) Conference—2016 in Accra on Wednesday.
The three-day conference, dominated by women accountants globally, is on the theme: “Building stronger institutions to mitigate corruption: Developing from the bottom up: The role of the professional woman.”
It seeks to empower and challenge the professional woman to champion the cause for a corruption-free society.
Participants will engage with media personnel, civil society organisations and interest groups to interrogate and dialogue on practical ways to contribute to the anti-corruption agenda.
Mrs Mahama urged professional bodies to raise awareness, provide strong leadership, mentorship and interventions, and act as good role models in our quest to mitigate corruption.
“Building stronger institutions and having an active and vigilant civil society are most essential to fight global corruption,” she emphasised.
Living by ethics
Speaking on the theme, the President of IFWA, Ms Agnes Yeboah, urged accountants to be wary of fraud and corruption and added: “living by ethics of the profession requires a high standard of integrity.”
She said a well-disciplined accountant would support the society in its quest to overcome challenges of corruption and promote good governance.
Corruption affects everyone
In his remarks, the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), Prof. K. B. Omane Antwi, maintained that corruption affected everyone, “with women in developing countries suffering the most.”
On many occasions, “women have experienced extortions and corruption at the hands of low-level public officials in the provisions of public services,” he said.
He said it was important for both men and women to have the same opportunities to deal with the corruption that often confronted them on a daily basis and expressed optimism that participants would identify bottlenecks to the problems and outline effective solutions in dealing with corruption at all levels, more especially at the grassroots.